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THE  CHINESE 


AND  THE 


CHINESE   QUESTION 


BY 

JAMES  A.  WHITNEY,  LL.D. 

CO  UNSELLOR-A  T-LA  W 


SECOND  EDITION 


OF 


NEW  YORK 
TIBBALS  BOOK  COMPANY 

26  WARREN  ST. 

1888 


THE  CHINESE 


AND  THE 


CHINESE   QUESTION 


BY 

JAMES  A.  WHITNEY,  LL.D. 

CO  UNSELLOR-A  T-LA  W 


SECOND  EDITION 


NEW  YORK 
TIBBALS  BOOK  COMPANY 

26  WARREN  ST. 

1888 


COPYRIGHT,  1888, 

BY 
JAMES  A.  WHITNEY. 


All  rights  reserved. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


THE  pages  following  are  devoted  to  a  subject  second  to 
'•  none  in  political  importance  ;  one  upon  the  determination 
of  which  the  ultimate  destiny  of  our  country  and  of  our 
people  must  depend.  The  events  of  the  eight  years  that 
have  elapsed  since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  have 
but  confirmed  the  views  expressed  in  the  latter,  and  have 
afforded  additional  proof  in  abundance  of  the  soundness 
of  the  conclusions  set  forth  therein. 

Although,   for   convenience,    it   has    been    preferred   to 
divide   the  volume    into   chapters,   the  work  as  a  whole, 
relating  to  the  Chinese  question   in   its  broad  and  varied 
j  phases,    is    composed     of    substantially   four   parts,    each 
I  framed   in  the  double  aspect  of  illustrating  in  detail  the 
j  branch  to  which  it  especially  relates  and  the  essential  con- 
/  nection  of  that  branch  with    the  subject  at  large  :  thus, 
)  from  page  i  to  page  72  relates  to  the  Chinese,  their  work, 
|i   institutions,  and  character  as  a  people,  and  their  place  and 
,\\  influence  in  former  times  among  the  nations  and  races  of 
the  earth  ;    from  page  72  to  page  107,  to  their  modern  rela- 
[ItioflS  with  the  nations  of  the  West  ;  from  page  107  to  page 
j  141  to  their  advent  and  presence  in  our  own  country  ;    and 
from  page  141  et  seq.,  to  the   methods  dictated  by  policy 
and  law  for  their  elimination  from  our  domain. 

The  author  may  say  here  what  he  said  in  the  preface  to 
the  first  edition,  that  in  urging  his  convictions  concerning 
Chinese  immigration,  he  speaks  from  no  immature  judg- 
\  j  ment  and  expresses  no  hastily  formed  opinion.  His  atten- 
i 


iv  PREFATORY    NOTE. 

tion  was  first  called  to  the  subject  during  a  visit  to  the 
Pacific  Coast  eighteen  years  ago,  and  from  that  time  to  the :. 
present  it  has  been  to  him  a  matter  of  no  inconsiderable 
investigation  and  reflection.  It  is  perhaps  needless  to 
remark  that  these  pages  would  not  have  been  presented  tc 
public  notice,  had  he  not  carefully  verified  his  statement" 
and  were  he  not  fully  convinced  as  to  what  deductions 
must  inevitably  be  drawn  from  established  facts. 

140  Nassau  Street, 

NEW  YORK  CITY;  September,  1888. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  Antiquity,   solidarity,  and  racial   persistence  of   the 

Chinese,      -  l 

II.   Isolated  evolution  of  China  in  Industries  and  Arts,          11 

III.  The  traditions  of  China  and  the  ideas  of  the  West,  -       19 

IV.  Chinese   origin   of   prime   factors   in   emergence   of 

Europe  from  barbarism,  24 

V.  Influence  of  the  thought  of  China  on  the  intellectual 

development  of  the  West,  -       30 

VI.  Intensity  and  symmetry  of  the  Chinese  mind,       -  34 

VII.  Racial  proclivities  of  the  Chinese  and  physical  condi 
tions  under  which  they  have  developed,    -  40 
VIII.  China  but  midway  in  her  career,  -                                      44 
IX.  Combined  intellectual  strength  and  savagery  of  the 

Chinese,      -  49 

X.  Vicious   elements    inherent    in,   but   not    impairing 

strength  of,  Chinese  character,  54 

XI.  Social  and  administrative  sagacity  of  the  Chinese,     -       58 

XII.  Physical  nature  of  the  Chinese,     -  63 

XIII.  Severity  of  conditions  of  life  in  China,  66 

XIV.  Origin  of  modern  relations  between  the  Caucasian 

and  the  Chinese,  72 

XV.  Immediate   results   of  interference    with    affairs   of 

China — British  trade  and  Tae-ping  revolt,  81 

XVI.  Wanton  aggressions  of  foreigners  upon  the  govern 
ment  and  people  of  China — our  national  share  in 
the  iniquity,  -  87 

XVII.  Danger   to   China  from   industrial  methods   of   the 

West,  -  -       91 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PA8E 

XVIII.  American  claims  against  China,  94 

XIX.  Unjustifiable  interference  of  foreigners  with  local 

and  domestic  affairs  in  China,  -       97 

XX.  Military  strength  of  China — our  foreign  policy 

with  regard  to  her,  102 

XXI.  Inception   and  progress  of  Chinese  immigration 

to  the  Pacific  Coast,      -  -     107 

XXII.  Injurious  effects  of  Chinese  immigration  in  Cali 

fornia,  1 1 1 

XXIII.  True  status  of  Chinese  labor  in  this  country,      -     116 

XXIV.  Chinese  cheap  labor  on  the  Pacific  coast  affects 

industries  even  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard,   -  122 

XXV.  Chinese  immigration  is  but  in  its  infancy  unless 
promptly  stopped  by  legislation  vigorously 
carried  into  effect,  -  -  125 

XXVI.  Our  producing  classes  can  bear  no  greater 
competition  from  cheap  labor  than  that  from 
Caucasian  sources.  The  Italian  and  the 
Hun,  -  -  131 

XXVII.  The  Caucasian  versus  the  emancipated  negro 

of  the  South,     -  135 

XXVIII.  Persistent  and  increasing  inflow  of  Chinese  to  all 

available  regions,     -  137 

XXIX.  Chinese  immigration  should  be  stopped  and  the 
Chinese  element  eliminated  from  our  popula 
tion,       -  141 
XXX.   Our  treaty  relations  with  China,  their  legal  bear 
ing  and  effect ;  right  and  necessity  of  abro 
gating  our  conventions  with  the  Chinese  gov 
ernment,      -                                                              141; 
XXXI.  The  Chinese,  the  favored  nation  clause,  and  the 

Federal  courts,  -     157 

XXXII.  Heed  should  be  given  to  public  opinion  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  adverse  to  the  presence  of  the 
Chinese, 
XXXIII.   Analysis  of  the  Burlingame  treaty, 


CONTENTS.  Vli 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXXIV.  China  has  herself  failed  to  fulfil  treaty  conditions, 
and  the  Burlingame  treaty  on  accepted  princi 
ples  is  voidable  thereby,  192 
XXXV.  Inception  of  the  Burlingame  treaty  ;  its  ratifica 
tion  and  attendant  circumstances,        -            -     175 

XXXVI.  The  Burlingame  treaty  gave  a  forced  stimulus 
to  Chinese  immigration  ;  the  beneficiaries 
thereof  179 

XXXVII.  Measures  requisite  to  meet  and  suppress  the  in 
vasion  of  the  Chinese,  -     182 
XXXVIII.   Quasi  sentimentality  and  inaccurate  averments 

of  pro-Chinese  advocacy,  188 

XXXIX.  One  course,  and  one  only,  can  stay  the  eastward 
migration  of  the  Yellow  race,  and  its  gradual 
conquest  of  the  land)  -  -  -  -  196 


THE   CHINESE,  AND  THE  CHI 
NESE  QUESTION. 


i. 

ANTIQUITY,    SOLIDARITY,  AND     RACIAL     PERSISTENCE     OF 
THE    CHINESE. 

THE  Chinese  problem  is  not  merely  a  question  of 
temporary  disturbance  to  a  single  community.  It  is  one 
of  the  migration  of  races  ;  of  the  overflow  of  redundant 
populations  upon  comparatively  unsettled  regions.  In  its 
political,  social,  industrial  and  commercial  bearings  upon 
the  future  of  our  country  it  is  of  broader  import  than  any 
other  that  has  ever  engaged  the  attention  of  the  American 
people.  Its  proper  consideration  calls  for  the  laborious 
examination  of  many  facts,  and  for  a  careful  investigation 
of  their  numerous  and  complex  relations.  And  it  requires 
that  investigations  be  made,  and  that  deductions  be  drawn, 
with  the  calmness  of  judicial  impartiality.  In  this,  as  in 
every  other  matter  of  broad  international  concern,  the 
narrow  pathway  of  truth  is  that  which  leads  to  safety,  and 
truth  is  gained  only  by  taking  facts  without  disguise  and 
treating  them  without  prejudice.  My  own  studies  have 
convinced  me  that  Chinese  immigration  is  full  of  danger  to 
our  country,  to  our  institutions,  and  to  our  people.  My 
reasons  for  this  will  be  given  in  due  course  in  these  pages, 
and  it  will  be  seen  that  they  are  based,  not  upon  unreflect 
ing  hostility  to  any  race,  but  upon  proofs  that  we  have 
opened  to  a  colossal  people  the  opportunity  for  limitless 


2  THE   CHINESE, 

aggrandizement  at  our  expense,  and  that  we  have  done  this 
with  a  recklessness  that  could  only  be  equalled  by  one  who, 
dwelling  on  lands  below  the  level  of  the  sea,  should  break 
down  the  dykes  that  hold  the  impending  waves.  And  if  it 
shall  seem  that  I  lay  too  much  stress  upon  the  historical 
development  of  China,  her  industries,  her  laws,  her  customs, 
the  character  of  her  people,  the  degree  of  her  civilization, 
and  her  relative  strength  among  the  nations,  remember 
that  in  a  subject  so  wide  and  so  deep,  we  shall  be  most 
content  with  our  conclusions  if  we  deduce  them,  not  from 
merely  proximate  data,  but  from  those  that  are  original 
and  undeniable,  even  if  remote. 

For  it  is  only  through  the  study  of  the  past  of  China 
that  one  may  form  a  clear  conception  of  the  present 
character  and  tendencies  of  her  people.  And  this  concep 
tion,  when  gained,  must  constitute  the  basis  of  all  accurate 
perception  of  her  future  relations  with  the  outside  world. 
A  population  comprising  substantially  one-half  of  the 
human  race,  of  a  mental,  moral  and  physical  type  indig 
enous  to  the  soil,  unmodified  by  external  influences  and 
intensified  by  isolation  and  successive  repetition  through 
tens  of  centuries,  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  possess  an 
inertia  peculiarly  its  own.  The  future  direction  of  this 
can  only  be  foreseen  from  a  knowledge  of  its  line  of  move 
ment  in  former  times.  The  slow  but  progressive  develop 
ment  of  China  has  produced  a  civilization  in  which  the  low 
level  of  moral  and  physical  life  incident  to  debased  and 
enslaved  races  is  strangely  combined  with  an  intellectual 
vigor  that,  in  all  the  requirements  and  vicissitudes  of  a 
complex  social  and  political  system,  has  proved  itself  equal 
to  the  promotion  of  learning  and  the  extension  of  arts,  and 
to  the  elaboration  of  methods  and  traditions  of  state-craft 
not  inferior  to  those  that  have  controlled  the  policy  of 
European  countries  and  of  our  own.  To  understand  this, 
and  the  logical  outcome  thereof,  is  manifestly  the  first  step 
to  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  conditions  of  the  conflict, 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  3 

peaceful  or  otherwise,  impending  between  the  Turanian 
and  the  Aryan  races.  And  such  an  understanding  is  best 
gained  by  the  laborious  but  fruitful  process  of  tracing  the 
development  of  China  through  its  salient  causes  and  more 
noticeable  results  from  the  time  when  offshoots  of  un 
lettered  tribes  crept  downward  from  the  Altaic  mountains 
to  find  homes  on  the  marshy  borders  of  the  Hoang-Ho. 

China  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  fertile  plain  or  basin 
bounded  on  the  east  by  the  Pacific,  on  all  other  sides  by 
elevated  and  comparatively  barren  plateaus  and  ranges  of 
lofty  mountains.  It  is  watered  by  two  great  rivers,  the 
Yellow  or  Hoang-Ho,  and  the  Blue  or  Yang-tse-Kiang,  and 
their  tributaries,  which,  traced  upon  the  map,  show  the 
whole  country  to  be  veined  with  the  means  of  internal 
commerce,  and  fertile  with  alluvium  from  the  slow  subsi 
dence  of  waters.  It  was  in  regions  adjacent  to  these  rivers 
that  the  Scythian  progenitors  of  the  present  population 
formed  in  early  settlements,  the  origin  of  which  is  lost  in 
the  mists  of  legendary  and  mythical  traditions.  The  first 
authentic  period  of  Chinese  history  begins  with  the  intro 
duction  of  arts  and  sciences  among  a  people  long  settled 
in  the  land  ;  and  ages  of  gradual  development  must  have 
preceded  this.  The  Yellow  River  is  dyked  along  its 
length  to  prevent  its  floods  from  overwhelming  the  adjoin 
ing  lands,  and  its  bed  is  thirty  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
surrounding  country — this  elevation  having  been  caused 
by  the  gradual  deposition  of  earthy  material  from  the 
heavily-laden  waters.  Assuming,  although  in  the  nature  of 
things  it  can  be  only  an  assumption,  that  this  deposit  has 
been  in  the  same  ratio  as  that  laid  upon  the  valley  of 
Egypt  by  the  inundations  of  the  Nile — four  inches  in  a 
century — it  is  easy  to  infer  how  long  a  period  may  have 
elapsed  since  the  artificial  banks  were  first  raised  by  a 
sedentary  people  to  protect  their  fields  from  injurious 
overflow.  It  is,  however,  unnecessary  to  resort  to  infer 
ence.  The  annals  of  China,  judged  by  the  same  standard 


4  THE   CHINESE, 

of  criticism  applied  to  those  of  other  countries,  disclose 
clear  evidences  of  substantial  accuracy.  The  era  adopted 
by  de  Guignes,  and  based  upon  his  investigation  of  the 
Chinese  records,  may  be  taken  as  not  far  out  of  the  way, 
and  this  places  the  accession  of  Fo-hi,  the  first  emperor, 
as  B.  c.  2953.  This  was  the  period  in  which  the  character 
of  the  race  began  to  harden  into  permanent  form,  and  the 
institutions  which  illustrate  if  they  have  not  caused  its 
permanence,  began  to  have  the  force  of  organic  laws. 

It  is  as  difficult  for  the  mind  to  grasp  the  full  measure 
of  four  thousand  eight  hundred  years  as  it  is  for  the  eye  to 
conceive  the  distance  to  the  far  horizon.  In  either  it  is 
necessary  that  the  thought  dwell  on  standards  of  compar 
ison,  placed  at  wide  intervals,  before  any  adequate  concep 
tion  can  be  had.  The  era  of  Fo-hi  was  less  than  a  century 
and  a  half  after  the  Deluge,  according  to  the  date  of  the 
latter  as  fixed  by  the  best  biblical  scholars.  It  was  more 
than  two  hundred  years  earlier  than  the  era  of  Menes,  the 
first  ruler  of  Egypt ;  it  was  more  than  four  hundred  years 
earlier  than  the  historical  inception  of  Babylonian  power  as 
unfolded  from  the  study  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  and 
five  hundred  earlier  than  the  foundation  of  the  city  that 
Nimrod  built.  Twelve  hundred  and  fifty  years  were  yet  to 
come  and  go  before  the  shepherd  kings  should  enter  the 
valley  of  the  Nile  to  drive  the  Cushite  from  the  throne  of 
Memphis ;  fifteen  hundred  years  before  Joshua,  amid  the 
hail  of  Bethhoron,  should  smite  the  kings  of  the  Amorites 
and  cleave  open  the  mountain  pass  that  led  to  the  promised 
land  ;  and  seventeen  hundred  before  the  Phenicians  should 
lay  the  first  stones  of  their  capital  by  the  fishing  huts  of 
Tyre.  It  was  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before  the  siege  of  Troy  ;  it  was  a  thousand  and  nine  hun 
dred  and  fifty  years  before  the  offerings  of  Solomon  blazed 
on  the  altar  of  Gibeon  ;  it  was  two  thousand  years  before 
the  appearance  of  the  Hellenes  in  Thessaly.  China  had 
already  a  history  of  twenty-one  centuries  when  Dido 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  5 

founded  Carthage.  Her  empire  had  endured  two  thousand 
two  hundred  years  when  Israel  mourned  beside  the  willows 
of  Babylon,  and  more  than  two  thousand  five  hundred  years 
when  Greece  rejoiced  in  the  issue  of  the  battle  of  Mara 
thon.  Gaze  through  the  retrospective  vista  as  we  may,  it 
is  difficult  indeed  for  the  intellect  to  arrive  at  a  full  con 
ception  of  the  reach  and  significance  of  the  mighty  lapse 
of  time  embraced  by  Chinese  history— the  history  of  a 
single  race.  For  those  who  till  the  fields  of  China  to  this 
day  sprang  from  the  loins  of  those  who  founded  the  em 
pire  and  who  may  well  have  gone  up  from  the  slopes  of 
Shen-si  to  join,  at  Babel,  their  liquid  tones  with  the  clamor 
of  ruder  tongues.  Race  has  followed  race,  and  old  races 
have  mingled  to  form  the  nations  of  the  earth  anew  in  every 
land  but  one — that  between  the  Himalayas  and  the  Yellow 
Sea.  In  that  there  has  been  no  change  save  by  the  normal 
development  of  native  faculties  and  the  progress  of  original 
tendencies  acted  upon  by  the  unchanging  agencies  of  soil 
and  climate,  and  fixed  by  the  utter  absence  of  fusion  or 
admixture  with  races  of  different  mold. 

If  there  had  existed,  from  the  beginning  of  time,  no 
other  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  the  character  of  the 
Chinese  would  scarcely  have  been  different  from  what  it  is. 
They  separated  from  the  world  in  an  infancy  whose  speech 
was  in  monosyllables,  and  which,  as  we  shall  see,  had  not 
yet  learned  the  use  of  the  crudest  of  the  implements  of  the 
laborer's  toil.  In  their  daily  converse  and  avocations  still 
are  used  words  that  were  syllabled  in  the  childhood  of 
humanity  and  symbols  drawn  from  natural  objects  before 
mankind  had  learned  to  resolve  articulate  speech  into  its 
component  sounds. 

According  to  prehistoric  legends  the  Chinese,  before  the 
invention  of  letters,  kept  their  records  by  means  of  knotted 
cords  corresponding  to  the  quippus  of  the  Peruvians. 
Their  alphabet,  if  such  a  term  can  be  properly  applied  in 
such  connection,  was  heterogenetic  and  formed  of  pictorial 


6  THE    CHINESE, 

representations  of  natural  objects,  bearing  in  this  regard  a 
close  resemblance  to  the  word-symbols  of  the  Mexicans. 
Their  historians  assert  that  the  earliest  use  of  emblematic 
signs  was  suggested  by  bird  tracks  in  the  snow,  and  it  is 
easy  to  understand  how  a  representation  of  such  a  track 
would  indicate  to  the  eye  and  understanding  a  definite  idea. 
A  circle  is  the  symbol  of  the  sun,  a  crescent  that  of  the 
moon,  and  man  is  represented  by  a  single  upright  stroke 
with  divergent  lines  for  the  extremities.  A  tree  is  indicated 
by  its  minute  representation  ;  and  by  a  natural  step,  the 
representation  of  two  trees  indicates  a  thicket,  of  three,  a 
forest.  The  most  common  objects  being  thus  denoted  by 
primal  emblems,  the  more  complex  relation  of  things  were 
represented  by  adjuncts  to,  and  modifications  of,  the 
unitary  signs,  some  of  the  compound  characters  compris 
ing,  it  is  said,  no  less  than  seventy  distinct  strokes  or  marks 
in  their  structure.  By  a  gradual  and  natural  development 
the  pictorial  signs  passed  into  the  character  of  abstract 
symbols,  these  to  united  or  compound  characters — in 
which,  however,  the  unitary  sign  was  always  included — the 
character,  by  a  normal  expansion,  becoming  finally,  in  a 
great  measure,  arbitrary,  so  that  its  present  meaning,  al 
though  traceable  in  some  shape  to  the  primitive  device  from 
which  it  sprang,  is  often  far  remote  from  its  source.  The 
primal  signs  are  termed  Tsi-Moo  or  "  mother  characters," 
by  reason  of  the  broods  they  have  brought  forth.  The  Tsi- 
Moo  for  wood  enters  into  the  structure  of  no  less  than 
twelve  hundred  and  thirty-two  derivative  or  compound 
characters  ;  that — soi — for  water  into  thirteen  hundred  and 
thirty-three  ;  that — tchou — for  grass  or  herbage,  or  gener 
ally  for  vegetation,  into  fourteen  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  ;  that — shoo — for  the  hand,  into  more  than  a  thousand, 
and  that  for  the  heart,  which  by  an  odd  phonetic  coin 
cidence  with  the  theological  ideas  of  the  outside  barbarian 
is  termed  sin,  into  nine  hundred  and  eighty-three.  Silk  is 
taken  as  the  representative  of  all  things  soft  in  texture  or 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  7 

delicate  in  kind,  and  its  sign— see — enters  into  upwards  of 
six  hundred  and  seventy  derivative  written  words,  and  Te- 
hok,  the  bamboo,  into  about  as  many.  The  practical  work 
ing  portion,  as  it  may  be  termed,  of  the  language  comprises 
about  thirty  of  the  root  words  or  mother  characters,  which 
enter  into  the  structure  of  about  twenty  thousand  com 
pound  characters  or  about  one-half  of  those  in  the  lan 
guage.  The  whole  of  the  remaining  root  signs  enter  into 
the  structure  of  the  other  half  and  constitute,  as  it  were,  a 
broad  fringe  to  the  substantial  fabric  of  the  language.  If 
we  can  imagine  an  acorn,  the  only  one  of  its  species, 
springing  into  spontaneous  life  in  favoring  soil  and  grow 
ing  to  the  fullness  of  strength  and  verdure,  unincumbered 
by  ingraft  from  any  other  stock  and  unchanged  by  alien 
tillage,  we  would  have  a  fit  parallel  of  the  origin,  growth, 
and  nature  of  Chinese.  It  is  with  the  language  as  with  the 
race,  a  normal,  segregated  growth,  through  the  slow  un 
folding  of  centuries,  unmodified  and  uninfluenced  by  the 
outside  world. 

With  a  language  so  symmetrically  a  unit  in  itself,  a  like 
unity  of  literature  has  resulted.  As  there  is,  further  on, 
occasion  to  remark,  the  intellect  of  China  appears  to  have 
kindled,  to  some  degree,  the  intellect  of  the  West  ;  but  her 
literature  was  of  an  origin  too  remote  to  have  permitted 
the  converse.  Five  hundred  years  or  more  before  the 
Christian  era  the  literature  of  China,  in  proportion  to  the 
then  existing  limits  of  human  knowledge,  appears  to  have 
more  than  equalled  in  volume  and  variety  that  of  the  most 
advanced  of  modern  nations  at  the  present  day.  It  was 
from  a  collection  of  three  thousand  odes  that  Confucius 
selected  those  which,  under  the  title  of  She-king ,  he  trans 
mitted  to  posterity  as  the  summum  bonuin  of  Chinese 
letters.  It  was  from  a  similar  plethora  of  materials  that  he 
complied  the  Le-ke  or  ceremonial  code,  and  the  Shoo -king , 
the  history  of  the  first  three  dynasties  of  the  empire.  Up 
on  the  framework  so  formed  from  the  accumulations  of  a 


8  THE   CHINESE, 

then  antiquity,  succeeding  generations  fashioned  their  work. 
In  the  course  of  thirteen  centuries  the  formulas  of  literary 
elegance  possible  within  the  resources  of  the  language  had 
become  exhausted.  In  the  eighth  century  of  the  Christian 
era  the  golden  age  of  letters  had  arrived.  Upon  observance 
of  the  canons  then  formulated,  all  subsequent  elegance  de 
pended.  In  style  and  form  the  Chinese  scholar  of  to-day 
follows  the  models  of  a  thousand  years  ago,  and  instead  of 
seeking  to  enrich  his  pages  with  thoughts  original  with 
himself,  or  with  flights  of  fancy  of  his  own,  he  garners  into 
them  the  excelling  phrases  of  the  masters  of  ancient  days. 
His  thoughts  are  their  thoughts,  and  their  thoughts  sprang 
in  lineal  descent  from  those  of  their  forefathers,  the  first 
children  of  the  soil :  and  the  intellectual  type  of  the  race  is 
as  fixed,  as  permanent  and  unchanging  as  is  the  physical 
type  inbred,  generation  after  generation,  from  the  beginning. 
As  with  the  intellectual,  so  with  the  sentimental  elements 
of  the  Chinese  chaiacter.  The  Chinese  were  the  first  to 
learn  and  appreciate  the  concord  of  sweet  sounds,  and  the 
Spanish  mandolin  to  this  day  preserves  in  its  semi-ovoid 
shell  the  contour  of  the  divided  gourd  upon  which  were 
first  strained  the  strings  of  its  Chinese  prototype.  But  that 
which  is  soft  and  pleasing  to  the  Chinese  ear  is  discord 
without  mitigation  in  the  hearing  of  the  people  of  the  West; 
while,  conversely,  the  music  of  the  latter  is  unpleasing  to 
the  Chinese.  The  sense  which  is  gratified  with  the  meas 
ured  recurrence  of  cadenced  sounds  has  been  developed 
along  a  line  so  divergent  from  that  of  other  races  that  the 
ear  attuned  to  the  harmony  of  the  one  is  wholly  deaf  to  that 
of  the  other.  The  vibrations  that  afford  pleasure  to  the 
brain  of  the  one  give  only  annoyance  to  that  of  the  other. 
The  Chinese  trace  the  origin  of  their  musical  instruments 
to  the  days  of  Fo-hi,  and  in  the  joy  of  the  lute  or  the  exul 
tation  of  the  drum  their  sensations  are  those  of  the  earliest 
of  the  race,  untaught  by  an  alien  idea,  unchanged  by  a  for 
eign  emotion. 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  9 

The  laws  of  a  people  spring  from  their  interests,  which  are 
defined  by  the  intellect,  and  from  their  social  sentiments, 
which  spring  from  the  heart.  The  laws  of  China,  like  its 
language,  were  evolved  from  the  needs  of  the  people,  and, 
like  the  language,  have  grown  symmetrically  from  few  and 
simple  roots  native  to  the  soil  and  springing  from  the  sim 
plest  attributes  of  human  nature,  into  a  network  of  rules 
and  regulations  which  govern  every  relation  of  life,  but 
which,  despite  their  complexity,  may  be  traced  back  to 
their  primal  stems  as  readily  as  the  fibers  of  a  palm  may  be 
traced  from  the  fronds  at  its  summit  to  the  strings  at  its 
root.  So  also  with  religion,  which  is  but  a  higher  and  nobler 
name  for  law  in  the  highest  and  best  sense  of  the  term. 
The  element  of  Chinese  faith  which  no  vicissitude  has  ever 
shaken,  and  which  has  withstood  the  siege  of  every  alien 
creed — the  worship  of  ancestors — is  one  derived  from  the 
most  primitive  condition  of  mankind,  that  in  which  the  will 
of  the  father  of  the  family  was  its  supremest  law,  his  wis 
dom  the  highest  guide,  and  his  translation  to  another  world 
but  the  evidence  of  higher  attributes  and  greater  power  ; 
and  to-day  the  soul  of  the  Chinaman  is  cradled  in  the  same 
simple  faith  that  guided  the  devotions  of  the  first  children 
of  his  race. 

Solidarity  and  unity  are,  therefore,  the  attributes  of 
China  and  its  people,  solidarity  and  unity  in  physical  char 
acter,  in  language,  in  literature,  in  laws,  in  the  structure  of 
society,  in  the  foundation  principle  of  religion  ;  and  in 
usages  and  customs,  for  these  are  part  and  parcel  of  law  and 
religion,  and  in  family  character,  for  this  follows  inevitably 
where,  through  hundreds  of  generations,  there  has  been  no 
admixture  of  alien  blood.  But  to  every  element  of  this 
fixed  and  ingrained  character  are  limits  apparently  impas 
sable,  limits  that  are  unknown  to  the  more  free  and  ethereal 
spirit  of  the  Caucasian  peoples.  What  is  termed  fixity  of 
type  by  modern  scientists  finds  its  strongest  illustration  in 
the  Chinese.  Assuming  the  teachings  of  physiologists  to 


10  THE   CHINESE, 

have  substantial  foundation  in  truth,  if  the  whole  population 
of  civilized  Europe  were  mingled  and  merged  with  the 
population  of  China  in  the  close  ties  of  the  marriage  rela 
tion,  the  last  traces  of  the  Caucasian  type  would  in  a  few 
generations  vanish  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  blood 
of  the  complex  and  refined  races  would  disappear  in  that  of 
the  simple  and  unitary  race,  under  the  same  law  through 
which,  in  all  the  animal  kingdom,  a  derivative  from  the 
union  of  a  complex  and  of  a  simple  type  tends  constantly 
to  return  to  the  simpler  and  ruder  of  those  from  which  it 
sprang. 

The  first  settled  of  the  provinces  of  China  was  Shen-si, 
which  lies  nearest  the  mountain  fastnesses  from  which  the 
earliest  of  the  race  emerged  to  cultivate  the  regions  below. 
They  spread  in  scattered  settlements  that  gradually  broad 
ened  and  touched  and  coalesced.  They  repelled  the  Tartar 
to  the  north  ;  they  drove  the  rival  tribes  southward  and 
westward  from  the  irrigable  lands.  Slow,  laborious,  and 
patient,  obedient  with  a  superstitious  obedience  to  the 
elders  whose  age  gave  them  experience  and  made  them 
conservative,  they  invented  for  each  difficulty  only  a  remedy 
that  met  its  sharpest  detriment  and  rested  content  without 
thought  or  care  for  more.  In  all  things  every  advance  from 
the  very  outset  was  self-evolved,  sprang  from  some  cause 
ingrained  and  inherent  in  the  race  itself  and  its  conditions 
of  existence  ;  and  each  in  its  time  and  place,  instead  of 
revolutionizing,  intensified  and  perpetuated  the  character 
that  gave  it  birth.  It  is  not  without  utility  that  we  may 
thus  trace  the  development  of  this  peculiar  race  and  note  the 
fixedness  of  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  type,  the  fixed 
ness  of  social  and  political  institutions,  due  to  a  strong  but 
coarse  racial  individuality  at  the  outset,  and  an  environment 
that,  supplying  all  physical  needs,  left  that  individuality 
to  work  out  its  tendencies  without  hindrance  or  modi 
fication, 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  n 

II. 

ISOLATED    EVOLUTION    OF  CHINA  IN    INDUSTRIES    AND  ARTS. 

As  with  the  general  attributes  of  the  race,  so  also  with 
the  minor  elements  embraced  in  its  industries  and  the 
ordinary  pursuits  of  its  daily  life. 

Nothing  affords  more  facile  proof  of  the  common  origin 
of  races,  now  remote  from  each  other,  than  does  the  iden 
tity  of  the  terms  applied  to  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  the 
similarity  of  the  rude  implements  by  which  the  simple 
operations  of  industry  are  performed.  The  former  has 
shown  the  primal  unity  of  Sanscrit  and  Zend,  and  traced 
to  its  farthest  source  the  origin  of  the  Aryan  peoples  ;  the 
latter  shows  that  the  arts  of  craftsmen  had  reached  a  cer 
tain  excellence  before  the  European  parted  company  with 
the  natives  of  India.  But  by  neither  of  these  clues  can 
any  connection  be  traced  between  China  and  other  lands. 
The  language,  even  in  its  simplest  roots,  has  no  analogue  ; 
and  the  implements  of  industry  have  characteristic  forms 
that  demonstrate  their  origin  to  be  distinct.  The  anvil  of 
the  Chinese  smith  is  not  flat  like  the  anvils  of  other  coun 
tries,  but  convex  on  its  face  or  working  surface,  and  the 
bellows  of  a  Chinese  forge,  instead  of  moving  vertically, 
has  a  horizontal  stroke.  The  paper  of  the  Chinese  is  thin 
and  weak,  is  printed  on  one  side  only,  but  doubled  to 
present  a  folded  edge  at  the  rim  of  the  leaf  and  a  printed 
surface  on  each  side.  The  chain-pump  of  China  has  a 
square  barrel,  that  of  other  lands  is  cylindric.  Brass  is 
made  elsewhere  by  melting  together  copper  and  zinc  in  a 
crucible  ;  in  China  by  suspending  thin  sheets  of  copper, 
heated  almost  to  melting,  in  the  vapor  of  molten  zinc. 
The  german-silver  of  Europe  is  made  by  combining  the 
materials  in  their  metallic  condition  ;  its  Chinese  equivalent 
by  mingling  the  ores  of  the  metals  and  reducing  them 
together  to  produce  the  alloy.  Spangles  are  made,  not  by 


12  THE    CHINESE, 

cutting  or  stamping  from  sheet  metal,  but  by  flattening 
wire  first  bent  into  annular  form.  Pewter  vessels  are  not 
cast,  but  shaped  by  hammering  upon  a  block.  The  primi 
tive  mill  used  in  many  countries — in  Normandy  for  crush 
ing  apples  for  cider,  in  South  America  for  pulverizing  ores, 
in  our  own  country  for  powdering  the  scoria  of  assaying 
pots,  and  composed  of  a  wheel  travelling  in  a  groove  or 
channel,  has,  among  Western  nations  its  wheel  running 
continuously  in  a  circular  track  around  a  vertical  axis  ; 
in  China  its  wheel  working  to  and  fro  in  a  semicircular 
track,  and  around  a  horizontal  centre  of  movement. 

And  so,  also,  of  almost  every  industry  and  art.  The  Chi 
nese  bell  has  no  vibratory  tongue  to  awake  its  echoes,  but 
is  struck  on  the  outside  with  a  mallet,  and  instead  of  having 
a  pear-shaped  or  conical  form  it  is  cylindric  in  shape  and 
slightly  swelled  at  the  middle.  The  seams  of  the  Western 
ships  are  caulked  with  oakum  sodden  with  tar,  those  of  the 
vessels  of  China  with  a  cement  composed  of  oil  and  cal 
cined  gypsum.  The  dulcimer  of  the  Occident  has  strained 
strings  of  wire,  that  of  the  Chinese  is  formed  of  resonant 
stones  suspended  from  a  ring  and  tuned  in  unison.  The 
Caucasian  organ  gives  forth  its  sound  when  its  holes  are 
opened,  that  of  the  Chinese,  the  ching^  one  of  the  sweetest 
and  most  charming  of  instruments,  gives  forth  its  slender 
tones  only  when  one  or  more  of  its  open  orifices  are  closed. 
The  sheet-lead  of  the  industrial  arts  of  Europe  and  America 
is  dense  and  compact,  formed  by  repeatedly  passing  an 
ingot  between  pressure  rollers  ;  that  of  the  artisan  of  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  known  to  us  as  the  universal  lining  of 
tea  chests,  is  porous  and  friable,  made  by  pouring  molten 
lead  upon  a  smooth  flat  stone,  of  which  the  counterpart  is 
pressed  down  upon  the  metal  to  crush  it  into  a  thin  broad 
leaf  before  it  has  time  to  solidify.  The  flail  used  by  the 
farmer  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  the  Thames,  or  the 
Seine  has  its  swingle  attached  by  a  flexible  string  which 
permits  its  universal  movement  with  regard  to  the  staff  ; 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  13 

that  of  the  farmer  by  the  Yang-tse-Kiang  has  it  attached 
by  a  pivot,  which  limits  its  swing  to  a  single  direction.  The 
thin  metal-ware  of  the  West  is  of  sheet-iron  spun  or  pressed 
to  shape  ;  that  of  the  Chinese  is  skilfully  made  of  cast-iron 
as  skilfully  annealed  in  hot  ovens.  The  tinker  of  England 
rivets  a  patch  on  a  broken  kettle,  his  Chinese  compeer 
makes  a  more  permanent  repair  by  flowing  molten  metal 
upon  the  fractured  edges  until  the  crevice  is  filled  and  the 
patch  made  integral  with  the  rest.  The  European  gardener 
multiplies  plants  by  placing  the  smoothed  ends  of  cuttings 
in  the  ground,  the  Chinese  by  taking  a  ring  of  bark  from  a 
branch  left  upon  the  tree  and  packing  around  it  loam,  kept 
constantly  moist  by  dripping  water,  until  a  mass  of  roots 
has  grown  from  within  the  cloven  bark.  The  "  outside 
barbarians"  put  a  misdemeanant  in  a  stationary  pillory  ; 
not  less  barbarous  than  this,  the  Chinese  place  an  ambu 
latory  pillory — the  cangue — upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
offender,  and  in  this  he  must  walk,  and  wake,  and  sleep. 
The  Chinese  blacksmith,  instead  of  forming  a  hard  edge  on 
an  implement  by  welding  a  strip  of  steel  thereto,  by  deft 
and  skilful  treatment  with  fire  and  water  slowly  brings  the 
edge  of  the  iron  itself  to  a  firm  and  hardened  temper.  The 
Chinese  tailor  heats  his  smoothing  iron,  not  by  placing  it 
upon  a  hot  surface,  but  by  kindling  a  charcoal  fire  in  a 
little  furnace  within  it.  The  moxa  of  our  physicians  is  a 
gliding  hot  plate,  that  of  the  physicians  of  China  is  a  tiny 
conical  heap  of  burning  leaves  of  the  artemesia.  The 
jaded  appetite  of  an  European  epicure  is  urged  by  sauces 
of  spiced  and  peppered  mushrooms,  that  of  the  Chinese 
bon-vivant  by  soy,  a  preparation  of  beans  rotted  under  the 
heat  and  vapor  of  fermenting  manure.  Chinese  lanterns 
are  not  made  of  horn  like  those  used  by  the  Romans,  or  of 
perforated  metal,  as  long  since  in  our  own  country,  or  of 
glass  as  now  universal,  but  are  of  varnished  paper  stretched 
on  bamboo  frames,  sometimes  of  little  cost  for  the  multi 
tude,  sometimes  of  intrinsic  worth  and  blazoned  with  titles 


• 

f^'THE   CHINESE, 


for  the  mandarins.  The  domestic  industry  of  other  lands 
has  obtained  the  healthful  acid  of  vinegar  from  the  acetic 
fermentation  of  the  sweet  juices  of  fruits  ;  the  Chinese  by 
placing  in  water  the  sea  polypus  found  along  the  coasts. 
The  scientists  of  the  west  have  envolved  anaesthetics 
through  intricate  processes  of  chemistry,  the  experimenters 
of  China  from  the  exudations  of  a  frog  in  torment.  Fish 
culture,  now  a  matter  of  government  solicitude  in  our  own 
and  other  countries,  is  old  in  China  ;  but  the  Chinese  fish 
culturist  puts  the  spawn  in  an  egg-shell  and  places  it  under 
a  sitting  fowl,  and  after  due  delay  breaks  the  shell  into 
water  warmed  by  the  sun.  These  are  not  trifles.  They 
show  that  in  the  earliest  period  of  her  existence,  China 
drew  nothing  from  other  lands.  In  what  she  required  she 
originated  all,  she  imitated  nothing. 

And  even  in  the  things  that  for  ages  have  been  common 
in  other  countries,  we  find  that  .in  unnumbered  instances 
their  parallelism  with  those  of  China  is  of  but  modern 
date  ;  that  they,  too,  at  former  periods  have  shown  by  their 
use  in  China  and  nowhere  else  that  they  were  but  further 
proofs  of  the  self-sufficing  and  self-supplying  character  of 
the  Chinese  mind.  It  was  this  that  discovered  the  polarity 
of  the  magnetic  needle  and  applied  it  to  use  in  the  compass, 
and  obviated  its  dip  by  the  simple  device  of  placing  its 
weight  below  the  point  of  suspension  ;  and  it  was  this,  too, 
that  first  perceived  and  made  allowance  for  the  variation  of 
the  needle  from  the  true  pole,  these,  as  I  have  occasion  to 
remark  in  another  place,  having  been  transmitted  through 
Arabian  channels  to  the  merchants  and  mariners  of  Europe. 
It  was  to  the  Chinese  intellect  that  was  due  the  invention 
of  printing  and  its  perfection  even  beyond  the  requirements 
of  the  language,  for  with  the  Chinese  alphabet  there  is  no  ad 
vantage  in  interchangeable  types  ;  and  this,  like  the  com 
pass,  but  by  another  route,  passed  from  China  into  the  pos 
session  of  the  west. 

It  was  from  this,  also,  that  arose  the  invention  of  paper  in 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  1 5 

the  first  century  of  our  era,  the  production  of  inks  having 
a  carbon  base,  as  with  the  printer's-ink  of  to-day,  and  the 
manufacture  of  lamp-black  from  the  burning  of  oils.  It 
was  this  that  devised  the  drilling  of  grain  as  distinguished 
from  broadcast  sowing,  a  method  that  saves  in  the  annual 
seedtime  of  China  as  much  as  would  feed  the  inhabitants  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  primitive  Chinese  mill  for 
the  hulling  of  rice  is  substantially  the  same  as  the  modern 
mill  for  decorticating  wheat ;  and  another  apparatus  for  the 
same  purpose,  a  lever  armed  with  a  stone  at  its  outer  end 
and  actuated  at  the  other  by  arms  radiating  from  the  shaft 
of  a  water-wheel,  differs  in  no  essential  respect  from  the 
principle  of  the  trip-hammer.  What  in  our  day  is  known 
as  the  Belgian  system  of  canal  propulsion,  and  recently  on 
trial  on  the  Erie  Canal,  was  derived  from  the  Chinese 
method  of  crossing  rivers.  The  plan  by  which  life-boats 
are  worked  to  and  fro  for  the  relief  of  stranded  vessels  is  the 
same  as  that  by  which  the  ships  of  mandarins  were  drawn 
against  the  current  of  the  Yellow  River  centuries  ago. 
The  paddle-wheel  was  used  for  purposes  of  propulsion  in 
China  long  ages  before  it  revolved  in  western  waters.  It 
was  the  structure  of  the  Chinese  junk  that  afforded  the 
prototype  of  the  water-tight  bulkheads  used  in  our  mod 
ern  steamships.  The  use  of  the  steelyard  was  common  with 
the  Chinese  two  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era. 
Upon  rafts  or  hurdles  of  bamboo  they  spread  layers  of 
earth  which  they  cultivated  like  garden  soil,  and  thus  an 
ticipated  by  ages  the  floating  gardens  of  Mexico. 

They  invented  the  arch  centuries  before  it  was  known  to 
the  architects  of  Greece  or  of  Rome.  Their  suspension 
bridges,  some  of  which  were  of  iron,  preceded  by  ages  the 
corresponding  structures  of  European  engineers.  Bells  were 
cast  by  them  of  an  alloy  of  copper  and  tin  twenty-seven  cen 
turies  before  our  era  and  generations  before  they  tinkled  in 
miniature  on  the  garments  of  the  sons  of  Levi.  From  the 
iron  of  the  mountain,  Ko-theen-loo,  they  made  armor  fifteen 


1 6  THE   CHINESE, 

hundred  years  before  the  time  when,  as  chronicled  by  the 
Arabian,  El  Mas'udi,  "the  Lord  made  the  metal  soft  to 
David  so  that  he  made  coats  of  mail."  Within  the  past 
sixty  years  the  division  of  labor  has  become  the  distinguish 
ing  feature  of  the  industrial  systems  of  Europe  and  Amer 
ica  ;  the  potteries  of  King-te-Chin  have  practised  the  same 
for  many  ages,  the  consecutive  labor  of  fifty  different  work 
men  being  necessary  to  the  production  of  a  piece  of  the 
finest  ware.  In  our  own  country  a  factory  system  of  making 
cheese  and  butter  was  initiated  about  forty  years  ago  ;  the 
like  was  done  by  Chinese  sugar-makers  generations  before 
the  existence  of  our  continent  was  known  to  the  eastern 
world  ;  and  the  same  workers  of  the  cane  first  used  the 
waste  bagasse  for  heating  the  evaporating  pans.  The 
Chinese  terraced  the  slopes  of  the  mountains  with  walls  of 
stone  for  the  growth  of  vegetables,  as  the  shores  of  Lake 
Leman  are  terraced  to-day  for  the  cultivation  of  the  vine. 
Mindful  of  the  chemistry  of  the  soil,  they  early  learned  to 
temper  sandy  lands  with  clay,  and  clay  lands  with  sand  ;  and 
they  carefully  gathered  and  applied  all  manner  of  fertilizers 
at  a  time  when  the  wealth  of  the  Roman  plains  was  passing 
through  the  great  cloaca  to  the  Tiber  and  the  sea.  They 
were  the  first  to  unwind  the  cocoon  of  the  silk-worm  and 
weave  fabrics  from  its  threads.  They  were  the  originators 
of  porcelain,  and  Kao-li?iy  the  name  for  the  clay  of  which  it 
is  made,  has  passed  into  the  industrial  nomenclature  of 
Europe.  They  invented  gunpowder,  not  only  for  fireworks 
and  for  explosive  mines  in  war,  but  for  fire-arms,  for  the 
embrasures  of  the  Great  Wall  are  fitted  for  the  reception  of 
the  swivels  of  wall-pieces  ;  and  more  than  six  centuries  be 
fore  the  Christian  era  their  cannon  bore  the  inscription  :  "  I 
hurl  death  to  the  traitor  and  extermination  to  the  rebel." 
They  discovered,  too,  in  remote  times,  that  the  best  char 
coal  is  made  from  willow,  a  fact  recognized  to  this  day  by 
manufacturers  of  gunpowder  in  all  parts  of  the  world  :  and 
their  proportions  of  sulphur,  carbon,  and  nitre  are  almost 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  17 

identical  with  those  of  the  best  powder  manufactured  in 
Europe.  They  burned  petroleum  in  lamps  long  before  such 
use  was  dreamed  of  among  the  western  peoples  ;  they  sunk 
salt-wells  hundreds  of  feet  through  varying  strata  and, 
finding  that  inflammable  vapors  arose  in  large  volumes, 
they  led  them  to  the  furnaces  for  use  as  fuel  in  heating  the 
evaporators.  They  rendered  potable  the  muddy  waters  of 
the  rivers  by  treatment  with  alum — a  process  employed  in 
Europe  with  effect  for  removing  clay  and  other  earths  from 
water  intended  for  use  in  various  branches  of  mannfacture. 

But  these  are  far  from  all.  They  adopted  the  decimal 
system,  for  measures  of  quantity  and  weight  and  value, 
centuries  before  French  legislators  recognized  its  utility  or 
French  scientists  formulated  its  application  to  the  traffic  of 
Europe  ;  and  now,  as  in  the  days  of  the  first  coinage  of 
copper,  the  lee  or  cash,  a  disk  with  a  square  hole  in  the  cen 
ter  to  permit  it  to  be  placed  on  a  string,  is  the  tenth  of  a 
fen,  and  \.\\z  fen  is  the  tenth  of  a  chen,  and  a  chen  the  tenth 
of  the  value  of  an  ounce  of  silver.  Their  units  of  volume 
and  length  were  literally  native  to  the  soil,  for  the  one  is 
the  cubic  contents  of  a  hundred  of  the  grains  of  the  Kow- 
leang  or  high  millet,  the  Holcus  sorghum  of  the  botanists, 
and  the  latter,  for  the  purposes  of  the  artisan,  the  linear 
space  occupied  by  a  certain  number  of  the  same  grains. 
For  the  measurement  of  distances  they  adopted  a  different 
standard  equally  indigenous  to  the  land.  This  was  the  /<?, 
about  two-fifths  of  a  mile,  the  distance  to  which  a  man's 
voice,  in  shrill  halloo,  can  be  heard  on  a  clear  and  windless 
day  on  the  level  fields  of  Ho-Nan. 

In  minor  industries  the  Chinese  long  ago  saved  the  culm 
and  dust  of  coal  and  mixed  it  with  clay  and  soft  earth  from 
the  marshes,  to  form  an  artificial  fuel,  an  invention  currently 
believed  in  other  countries  to  be  of  recent  years.  They 
were  the  first  to  make  spectacle-glasses  from  sections  cut 
from  rock-crystal.  They  made  cloth  from  the  bark  of  the 
nettle,  a  project  revived  from  Germany  as  new  within  the  past 


1 3  THE   CHINESE, 

few  years  ;  and  they  applied  to  the  extraction  of  color  from 
a  native  plant  the  processes  by  which  indigo  is  extracted 
from  the  Indigofera.  They  hatched  the  eggs  of  fowls  by 
artificial  heat,  the  method  by  which  ostriches  are  incubated 
on  the  ostrich  plantations  of  South  Africa.  They  found  food 
in  the  roots  and  the  seeds  of  the  lily  growing  in  reedy  ponds  ; 
they  purified  the  nauseous  product  of  the  Palma-Christi 
until  it  became  edible  and  sweet ;  they  made  oil  from  the 
seeds  of  the  camellia  and  from  the  crushed  kernels  of  the 
apricot.  They  trained  the  sheep  to  carry  burdens  through 
the  highest  denies  of  neighboring  mountains,  and  taught 
the  brown  cormorant  to  fish  in  behalf  of  his  owner  in  the 
dun  canals.  With  a  keenness  of  observation  and  refinement 
of  practice  unknown  to  our  industries  they  spun  the  fibre 
of  cotton  as  it  came  from  the  boll,  lest  its  strength  should 
be  impaired  by  the  processes  of  compression  and  separa 
tion  ;  and  reeled  silk  from  the  living  cocoon  lest  the  purity 
of  its  natural  tint  should  be  impaired  by  the  death  of  the 
worm. 

Such  were  the  manifestations  of  the  Chinese  intellect  as 
applied  to  the  useful  arts.  Such  were  the  implements  and 
methods  by  which  the  genius  of  China  manifested  itself  in 
originating  the  industries  by  which  her  constantly  increas 
ing  population  has  been  sustained,  and  which  through 
almost  unnumbered  ages  have  formed  the  basis  of.  her 
power  and  the  foundations  of  her  home  and  foreign  policy. 
But  it  is  to  be  remarked,  and  the  fact  illustrates  not  only 
the  nature  of  the  people  but  the  policy  of  the  government, 
that  every  art,  every  implement  or  method,  related  only  to 
the  furtherance  of  manual  operations.  Nowhere  is  there 
the  slightest  evidence  of  intent  to  encourage  labor-saving 
machinery,  which,  in  less  densely  populated  countries,  by 
dispensing  with  the  labor  of  some,  lessens  the  cost  of  the 
products  of  labor  to  all  ;  but  everywhere  the  ready  devis 
ing  and  adoption  of  whatever  furnished  employment  for 
human  hands  or  opened  new  sources  from  which  the  indi- 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  19 

vidual  could  derive  food  and  raiment  by  personal  labor. 
Within  these  limits  all  was  devised  that  was  required  for  use 
in  the  agriculture  or  manufactures  of  the  country.  But  the 
limit  was  early  reached.  Hence  the  lack,  through  many 
ages  past,  of  industrial  advancement,  so  far  as  concerns 
the  use  of  improved  machinery  or  processes,  which  has 
given  to  the  arts  of  China  the  almost  stereotyped  char 
acter  manifest  in  her  social  and  political  institutions. 
Arts  and  industries  thus  restricted  could  only  attain  excel 
lence  through  the  highest  development  of  mechanical  skill  ; 
and  their  rewards  could  only  be  obtained  through  the  culti 
vation  of  certain  faculties,  and  these  not  separately  but 
together,  which  may  be  briefly  enumerated  as  accuracy  of 
perception,  closeness  of  calculation,  curiosity  active  but 
trained  and  disciplined  to  a  rare  degree,  and  unwearying 
patience. 


III. 

THE    TRADITIONS    OF    CHINA  AND  THE  IDEAS  OF  THE  WEST. 

THERE  is  a  strange  identity  between  the  legends 
and  traditions  of  the  earlier  branches  of  the  Caucasian 
race  and  those  of  a  remote  period  of  Chinese  civili 
zation.  To  a  Chinaman  the  story  of  the  deluge,  as  rela 
ted  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  is  but  an  echo  of  the  story 
told  in  the  Chinese  records  more  than  two  thousand  two 
hundred  years  before  our  era,  in  which  the  land  was  sub 
merged,  and  after  which  several  generations  were  required 
to  turn  the  rivers  back  to  their  courses  and -recover  the 
plains  from  the  flood.  The  account  of  the  famine  of  Egypt 
reads  like  a  paraphrase  of  the  seven  years'  famine  in  China 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  before  our  era. 
The  theologians  of  the  west  speak  of  the  tree  that  grew  in 
Eden  as  the  tree  of  life  ;  the  Chinese  place  in  their  para 
dise  a  peach-tree,  and  he  who  eats  of  the  fruit  thereof  shall 


20  THE   CHINESE, 

be  immortal.  The  scriptural  story  of  Samson  is  paralleled 
in  nearly  the  same  age  by  that  of  the  tyrant  Chow,  who  was 
strong  enough  to  conquer  wild  beasts  by  his  physical 
strength,  and  was  deluded  to  his  ruin  by  an  evil  woman. 
When  Jonah  watched  the  Nineveh  which  he  thought 
doomed  by  his  prophecy,  a  gourd  grew  up  in  the  night, 
and  withered  as  speedily.  Sixteen  hundred  and  thirty-six 
years  before  Christ,  in  the  reign  of  Tae-Suh,  two  trees 
grew  up  in  his  palace  in  a  single  night,  and  withered  again 
in  three  days.  Greece,  in  its  mythology,  had  its  legend  of 
the  golden  age  of  Saturn  ;  the  golden  age  of  China  endured 
through  forty  years  and  ended  with  the  reign  of  Kang- 
Wang,  in  the  eleventh  century  before  our  era,  and  in  that  age 
no  man  did  wrong  and  no  man  was  punished.  The  story 
of  Orpheus  is  a  variant  only  of  that  of  the  Emperor  Shun, 
who,  according  to  the  Shoe-King,  declared,  "  When  I  strike 
upon  the  musical  stones  the  most  ferocious  wild  beasts 
testify  their  joy."  The  Shoo-King  dates  from  the  age  of 
Confucius.  The  Emperor  Hoang-Ti  built  a  temple  to 
Peace  two  thousand  years  before  the  walls  of  the  first  tem 
ple  to  Janus  were  built  by  the  banks  of  the  Tiber. 

The  dragon  of  St.  George  dates  from  the  Crusades,  and 
was  derived  from  the  Saracens  ;  the  Chinese  annals 
describe  the  dragon  as  a  living  animal,  seen  upon  their 
sea-coast  three  thousand  years  earlier,  the  last,  and  per 
haps  the  only,  example  of  the  Saurian  of  geologic  times 
beheld  by  human  eyes.  The  use  of  armorial  bearings  in 
the  west  arose  in  the  age  of  chivalry,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  twelfth  century.  It  is  written  that  Tsao-hao  "  dis 
tinguished  the  principal  officers  of  his  realm  by  figures  of 
birds  and  of  savage  beasts,  which  the  great  still  carry  on 
their  clothes  to  mark  their  dignity"  :  and  Tsao-Hao  lived 
two  thousand  five  hundred  and  ninety-seven  years  B.C. 
So  far  as  concerns  the  traditions  of  the  deluge  and  of  the 
famine,  they  may  have  independently  arisen  from  the  oper 
ation  of  similar  natural  causes,  although  even  then  their 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  21 

substantial  correspondence  is  still  a  matter  of  surprise 
As  concerns  the  others  referred  to,  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  those  of  the  later  date  must  have  been 
derived  in  some  manner  from  the  earlier.  The  practice  of 
astrology  which,  like  the  search  for  the  elixir  of  life  and  the 
transmutation  of  metals,  passed  to  Europe  from  Arabia, 
was  doubtless  like  them  derived  from  the  Chinese,  with 
whom  its  practice  appears  to  have  been  coeval  with  the 
earliest  period  of  their  history.  The  same  remark  applies 
to  much  else,  even  to  matters  of  minor  moment,  and  some 
almost  ludicrous  in  their  nature.  We  apply  the  term 
"boozy  "to  the  good-natured  stupidity  incident  to  a  cer 
tain  degree  of  intoxication.  The  term  is  from  the  Arabian 
"  boozah,"  a  beverage  identical  with  a  fermented  liquor  of 
China,  described  by  travelers  there  as  early  as  the  ninth 
century,  and  made  from  rice  ;  but  the  Arabians  having  no 
rice,  substituted  in  its  place  dough  made  from  the  grains  of 
the  Dourah  or  millet.  To  this  day  the  superstitious  among 
the  Arabs  believe  that  an  eclipse  of  the  moon  is  produced 
by  the  attempt  of  a  huge  fish  to  swallow  the  planet,  and 
they  strive  to  drive  it  away  by  the  noise  of  drums  and  brass 
kettles  ;  the  Arabs  having  substituted  the  fish  with  which 
they  were  familiar  for  the  dragon  of  China,  which  though 
to  them  an  alien  myth,  was  the  source  of  their  belief.  In  the 
earlier  ages  of  China  a  person  executing  a  written  instru 
ment  made  his  signature  by  tracing  the  outline  of  his  hand 
with  a  pencil,  and  it  is  hardly  avoidable  to  believe  that  this 
was  the  origin  of  the  phrase,  "  Witness  my  hand,"  etc.,  in  our 
modern  usage.  We  speak  of  a  "man  of  straw."  It  is  told 
how,  in  the  early  ages  of  China,  images  of  straw  were 
placed  in  graves  at  the  burial  of  the  dead  ;  this  no  doubt 
being  the  substitute  of  an  advancing  civilization  for  the 
burial  alive  with  a  dead  chief  of  slaves  and  retainers  who, 
as  with  the  savage  islanders  of  the  Pacific  in  recent  times, 
were  believed  to  accompany  him  in  another  world.  Even 
words  legitimately  a  portion  of  the  English  language  of 


22  THE   CHINESE, 

to-day  bear  witness  to  the  transfer  of  ideas  from  China  to 
the  west ;  thus  the  word  "  typhoon  "  is  the  Arabic  tafun 
from  tai-fong,  the  term"  applied  by  the  Chinese  to  the 
storms  that,  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  scattered  the 
wrecks  of  their  vessels  along  the  coast  of  Malabar  and  the 
eastern  seas. 

More  than  a  century  before  the  Christian  era  the  Chinese 
treasury  cashed  its  own  checks  written  upon  leather  and 
forming  an  artificial  currency  for  the  people,  and  this  was 
followed  by  paper  money  through  several  hundred  years  ; 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  while  to  the  Hebrews  of 
Venice  is  due  the  credit  of  initiating  in  Europe  the  use  of 
drafts  and  checks  and  the  methods  of  banking,  they  derived 
it  in  their  turn  through  their  co-religionists  who  were  famil 
iar  with  it  in  China.  There  seems,  indeed,  to  be  scarcely 
a  phase  of  development,  short  of  the  sciences  and  inventions 
of  the  western  nations  during  the  past  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years,  through  which  China  has  not  passed  or  from 
which  she  has  not  contributed  to  the  ideas  of  the  west  ;  in 
many  instances  antedating  by  centuries  its  experience. 
Thus,  among  ourselves  in  recent  years  much  thought  has 
been  given  to  the  discussion  of  the  taxation  of  land  values 
as  a  means  of  preventing  the  accumulation  of  unearned 
wealth  by  the  owners  of  uncultivated  soil.  In  China,  if  a 
piece  of  land  be  left  uncultivated  those  who  occupy,  or  if 
there  be  none  such,  those  who  dwell  nearest  it,  are  com 
pelled  to  pay  taxes  thereon.  It  is  for  this  reason,  said  a 
traveller  centuries  ago,  that  "  in  the  whole  country  you  will 
not  find  a  plot  of  ground  lying  fallow." 

In  some  instances  the  acute  skill  of  the  Chinese  has 
anticipated  by  centuries  the  use  of  modern  methods. 
The  art  of  photography  has  enabled  a  criminal  to  be  iden 
tified  wherever  he  may  be  found.  Ibn  Batuta  says  that 
the  Chinese  "  excel  in  portraiture  "  and  that  the  portrait  of 
every  stranger  in  the  country  was  painted,  and  that  if  for 
any  reason  he  was  compelled  to  flee  the  country  they  sent 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  23 

the  picture  to  the  outlying  regions  to  secure  his  recognition 
and  arrest.  The  Chinese  invented  chess  a  thousand  years 
before  it  is  first  mentioned  in  the  Arabian  annals,  and  it  is 
known  that  they  used  playing  cards  a  century  and  a  half 
before  their  first  mention  in  Europe.  Of  the  products,  the 
merits  of  which  they  discovered  and  gave  to  the  world,  in 
addition  to  those  I  have  mentioned,  were  ginseng,  which 
their  physicians  prepared  by  seventy-seven  different 
methods  and  which  was  formerly  sold  for  eight  times  its 
weight  of  silver,  and  also  curcuma  and  turmeric ;  the 
quince  and  the  peony,  the  latter  called  in  their  lan 
guage  "  the  hundred  ounces  of  gold  "  and  comprising  two 
hundred  and  forty  species,  flowering  through  spring, 
summer,  and  autumn  ;  in  later  times  the  hortensia  and  the 
odorless  Chinese  lily  passed  westward  from  China.  The 
orange,  now  grown  in  every  part  of  the  civilized  world 
where  the  climate  permits,  and  which,  ripening  in  the  oases 
of  the  Barcan  deserts,  gave  the  golden  apples  of  the  Hes- 
perides  to  the  Greek,  was  first  cultivated  in  China  ;  and  its 
Arabian  name  Aranj  indicates  the  channel  through  which 
it  came  to  the  west,  and  the  origin  of  its  present  desig 
nation  in  every  language  of  Europe.  It  was  from  Asia 
Minor,  which  received  them  from  China,  that  the  peach 
and  the  apricot  were  brought  to  the  gardens  of  Lucullus. 
From  China,  also,  came  the  cinnamon-tree  to  the  white 
sands  of  Ceylon,  the  product  of  the  camphor  to  the  phar 
macies  of  Venice,  and  the  roots  of  the  rhubarb  to  the  her- 
bals  of  India,  from  which  they  passed  to  all  other  lands. 
The  sorghum,  which  forms  so  large  a  portion  of  the  sugar 
producing  material  of  our  country,  was  introduced  from 
China  direct  less  than  thirty  years  ago.  In  almost  every 
phase  of  intellectual  and  industrial  effort  China,  isolated  as 
she  has  been,  has  contributed  her  share  to  the  civilization 
and  progress  of  the  human  race,  but  throughout  all,  it  is  to 
be  noted,  there  have  been  limits  far  within  those  which 
have  formed  the  boundaries  of  Caucasian  thought.  Where 


2  4  THE   CHINESE, 

the  Chinese  intellect  in  the  arts  and  industries,  and  even  in 
the  manifestations  of  fancy  and  imagination,  has  paused, 
there  the  Caucasian  intellect  has  seized  the  crude  results 
and  carried  them  to  higher  development.  But  while 
the  bolder  spirit  of  the  west  has  accomplished  this,  it  has 
fallen  short  in  certain  excellences  which  are  inherent  in  the 
resolute  yet  patient  and  crafty  character  of  the  Chinese. 


IV. 

CHINESE     ORIGIN     OF    PRIME     FACTORS     IN     EMERGENCE     OF 
EUROPE    FROM  BARBARISM. 

WE  have  already  seen  that  the  industries  of  China  were 
self-evolved ;  sprang  from  no  foreign  source,  and  were  un 
affected  by  any  external  agency.  This  carries  with  it  the 
conviction  that  the  intellectual  type  must  have  been  devel 
oped  in  like  manner.  For  the  same  conditions  which  exclude 
the  idea  of  any  external  force  in  the  formation  of  industries 
necessarily  exclude  any  corresponding  idea  as  to  the  for 
mation,  development,  or  progress  of  the  racial  mind,  the 
characteristics  of  which  are  shown  in  every  phase  and  aspect, 
great  or  minute,  of  Chinese  history  and  progress,  and  on 
them  have  been  framed,  from  the  beginning,  the  life  and  the 
strength  of  China.  From  them,  as  embodied  in  the  Chinese 
of  remote  periods  of  time,  have  been  drawn  many  of  the 
discoveries  without  which  the  civilization  of  our  western 
world  would  have  been  incomplete  if  not  impossible.  In 
considering  this,  a  by  no  means  unimportant  factor  in  the 
relations  of  China  with  the  Caucasian  nations,  we  are  to 
remember  that  while  the  masses  of  the  populations  of 
each  were  ignorant  of  those  of  the  other,  no  such  remark 
applies  to  the  learned  classes  of  either.  Century  after 
century  while  the  world  grew  old,  the  traders  from  the  west 
passed  to  and  fro  in  yearly  journeys  across  the  plains  of 
Persia  to  the  entrepots  of  Shen-si.  Century  after  century, 


AND  THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  25 

from  times  almost  coeval  with  the  birth  of  traffic,  merchants 
passed  back  and  forth  from  Asia  Minor  to  the  coasts  of 
India,  and  thence  back  and  forth  through  the  Archipelago 
and  the  Malaccan  seas  to  the  distant  harbor  of  Canton: 
while  at  various  periods  the  priesthood  of  Israel,  the 
followers  of  Buddha,  and  the  disciples  of  Mahomet,  main 
tained  unbroken  intercourse  with  co-religionists  in  the  land 
known  to  the  Persians  as  Seres,  to  the  Indians  as  Sinensis, 
and  to  the  Mediterranean  nations  as  Cathay. 

Prior  to  the  discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
Europe  sought  China  only  by  way  of  the  Levant.  From 
this  latter  there  were  two,  or  rather  three,  routes:  the  north 
ern  by  way  of  Persia,  the  southern  by  way  of  the  Red  sea, 
the  Indian  ocean  and  the  western  shores  of  the  Pacific,  the 
third  overland  to  the  cities  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  harbors 
of  India,  and  thence  by  sea.  The  former  led  to  Cambaluor 
Pekin  ;  the  two  latter  to  Kingsai  or  Canton  and  Zaitun  or 
Amoy.  All  of  them  were  traversed  by  travellers,  by  traders 
and  by  ambassadors,  at  a  date  so  early  that  no  record  thereof 
remains.  It  is  known  that  there  were  Hebrews  settled  in 
China  before  the  Christian  era,  and  in  the  year  A.D.  73,  two 
years  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  sixty  fami 
lies  of  the  tribes  of  Juda,  Benjamin  and  Levi,  journeying  by 
way  of  Persia,  found  refuge  in  China,  and  for  fifteen  hun 
dred  years  thereafter  kept  up  communication  with  the  peo 
ples  of  the  west ;  and  two  centuries  later  yet  there  remained 
six  families  of  them  who  were  still  adherent  to  their  faith. 
There  appears  to  have  been  no  century  during  the  past 
two  thousand  years  when  the  descendants  of  Israel  have 
not  been  settled  among  the  Chinese.  Political  relations 
between  China  and  Persia  are  known  to  have  existed  as 
early  as  the  middle  of  the  second  century  of  our  era,  and 
some  of  the  great  families  of  the  latter  country  in  early 
times  traced  their  origin  to  a  Chinese  source.  In  the  third 
century  the  Emperor  of  China  offered  mediation  between 
the  rival  kings  of  Persia  and  Armenia.  In  the  latter  part 


26  THE   CHINESE, 

of  the  sixth  century  the  King  of  Persia  asked  the  aid  of 
China  against  an  invasion  that  threatened  from  Bactria,  and 
in  the  seventh  the  last  of  the  Sassanide  kings  asked,  with 
out  success,  and  from  the  same  source,  assistance  against 
the  Saracens.  In  that  same  age  the  Chinese  made  tribu 
tary  the  regions  of  the  west  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Persia, 
including  the  regions  now  marked  as  Turkestan  and  Kho- 
rassan  upon  the  maps  of  Central  Asia  ;  and  for  several  gen 
erations  the  kings  of  Samarcand,  one  of  the  marts  of  west 
ern  traffic,  were  tributary  to  China.  In  the  middle  of  the 
tenth  century  the  ruler  of  one  of  the  kingdoms  of  the 
Caspian  sent  his  son  to  the  Emperor  of  China  from  whom 
he  received  high  military  honors.  .According  to  the  chron 
icles  of  the  Eastern  Church  the  Metropolitan  sees  of  Herat 
and  Samarcand  were  linked  with  those  of  China  in  times 
as  remote  as  the  eighth  century. 

The  Chinese  records  show  that  Christianity  was  estab 
lished  in  China  at  least  as  early  as  620,  and  in  745  the 
emperor  made  an  edict  that  the  Christian  temples  should 
no  longer  be  known  as  temples  of  Persia,  but  as  temples  of 
Tathsi/i,  the  Chinese  name  for  Rome.  At  still  earlier  dates 
the  Buddhist  missionaries  had  reached  China  and  perme 
ated  the  country  with  their  principles.  The  ease  with 
which  China  was  reached  overland,  despite  the  waterless 
deserts  that  lay  in  the  way,  is  illustrated  by  an  instance  given 
on  hearsay  by  Abu-Zind,  who  wrote,  in  the  year  851,  of  a 
man  seen  at  Khanfu  bearing  a  bagful  of  musk,  who  had 
travelled  on  foot  to  that  seaport  from  Samarcand.  For 
centuries  the  road  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  shores  of 
the  Yellow  sea  was  traversed  by  regular  annual  traffic,  and 
the  itineraries  still  remain  which  set  forth  the  journey  from 
Tana,  near  Azov,  on  the  Black  Sea,  via  Astrakan  to  the 
Great  Canal  at  King-sze  and  thence  to  Cambalu  or  Pekin. 
In  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  Rashid-uddin 
gives  full  instructions  to  those  who  would  go  thither  from 
"  Venice  or  Genoa."  In  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  27 

century  Ibn  Batuta  passed  through  India  to  Calcutta  and 
thence  by  sea  to  China,  and  his  account  shows  how  open,  at 
that  time,  China  was  to  travellers  from  the  west.  He  saw, 
he  says,  in  the  heart  of  China,  one  of  his  countrymen  from 
Ceuta,  at  the  western  end  of  Morocco,  and  afterward,  in 
other  journeys,  met  the  brother  of  this  compatriot  at  Segel- 
messa,  on  the  southern  borders  of  Sahara.  Thirteen  ships 
from  China  were  lying  in  the  harbor  of  Calcutta  when  Ibn 
Batuta  started  thence.  It  is  he  who  first  gave  to  the  Pa 
cific  ocean  its  present  name,  Ul-Bahr-ul-Kahil,  the  sea 
which  has  neither  winds  nor  waves  ;  and  over  which  his 
ship  was  towed  by  her  boats  aided  by  great  oars  swinging 
from  her  decks.  In  the  time  of  this  traveller  there  were 
many  Mussulman  merchants  in  China,  and  the  Mahom 
etan  faith  was  widely  introduced.  As  with  the  northern 
and  central  routes,  so  also  with  that  from  Arabia.  The 
products  of  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa  were  gathered  there 
and  sent  thence  by  sea  to  the  ports  of  the  Euphrates  and 
of  the  Indian  seas,  whence  they  passed  in  Chinese  keels  to 
the  markets  of  China.  The  writings  of  various  Arab  trav 
ellers  on  this  head  are  still  extant.  The  work  of  the  Vene 
tian,  Marco  Polo,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  bears  abundant 
evidence  that  in  his  time  China  was  open  to  foreigners 
from  Western  Europe* 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  China  has  been  far  from 
an  idle  factor  in  the  history  of  the  world.  In  ages  when 
civilization  was  greatest  in  regions  now  barren  and  desolate, 
her  arms  were  as  powerful  in  war  as  was  her  influence  in 
peace.  If  it  be  said  that  this  belongs  to  dead  history,  it 
may  be  answered  that  the  genius  and  character  of  the  peo 
ple  remain,  and  remain  unchanged,  and  that  if  other 
nations  have  grown  to  colossal  strength  China  has  increased 
in  power  and  resources  in  a  no  less  degree. 

But  the  influence  of  China  in  war  or  statesmanship  was 
trifling  in  comparison  with  her  influence  exerted  upon  the 
western  nations  through  the  agency  of  inventions  that 


*  8  77//J    CHINESE, 

sprang  from  the  skill  of  her  people,  and  the  ideas  that,  born 
from  the  dreams  of  her  sectaries,  passed  into  the  intellect 
ual  life  alike  of  the  Semite  of  Asia  and  the  Caucasian  of 
Europe. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  invention  of  printing.  It  has  been 
said  that  this  had  independent  and  spontaneous  origin  in 
Holland  because  it  was  there  devised  before  the  discovery 
of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  But  the  writers  who  have 
advocated  this  ignored  the  familiar  converse  of  China  with 
the  western  world  through  the  channels  I  have  mentioned. 
The  impartial  investigator  cannot  doubt  that  the  first  in 
Europe  to  print  with  movable  and  separate  type  was 
Laurentius  Coster,  of  Haerlem,  about  the  year  1430. 
Printing  with  movable  types,  although  not  advantageous 
with  the  Chinese  language,  is  a  Chinese  invention,  and  is 
described  in  a  Persian  history  of  China — Raschid-Eddin's 
Chronicles  of  the  Rulers  of  Khatai,  in  A.D.  1310,  and  a 
description  of  the  invention  may  well  have  passed  to  the 
commercial  cities  of  Holland  by  the  same  path  as  that  by 
which,  two  centuries  later,  the  tulips  of  Isphahan  were  car 
ried  to  the  gardens  along  the  Scheldt.  Often  an  incident, 
slight  in  itself,  is  more  convincing  proof  than  pages  of 
argument.  When  Laurentius  fastened  together  his  wooden 
type  with  a  surrounding  string,  the"  common  material  for 
writing  was  made  to  receive  the  character  on  both  sides  of 
the  sheet.  But  with  the  instinct  of  the  imitator,  Lauren 
tius  printed  but  one  side  of  the  paper,  and  pasted  the  backs 
of  the  two  sheets  together  in  semblance  of  the  printed 
pages  of  China.  The  knowledge  of  gunpowder  came  from 
the  same  source,  but  passed  from  the  Chinese  to  the 
Saracen,  and  from  the  Saracen  to  the  European.  As  al 
ready  mentioned  it  was  invented  in  China  before  the 
Christian  era.  It  is  mentioned  by  Arabian  authors  in  the 
year  1249,  more  than  thirty  years  before  the  first  dim  hint, 
in%  Europe,  of  its  composition  in  the  writings  of  Roger 
Bacon,  and  also  by  them  in  1312,  and  again  in  1323.  It 


AND    7 HE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  29 

was  first  used  in  Europe  in  1330  in  the  wars  between 
Venice  and  Genoa,  and  sixteen  years  later  in  France  at  the 
battle  of  Crecy.  The  magnetic  needle  was  borne  on  land 
carriages  by  the  Chinese,  and  by  its  means  the  Emperor 
Hoang-ti  is  said  in  the  chronicles  to  have  been  able  to  fol 
low  a  retreating  enemy,  twenty-six  hundred  years  before  our 
era.  "By  this  method,"  says  the  historian,  "  he  overtook 
Tehi-Yeon,  made  him  prisoner  and  put  him  to  death." 
According  to  Humbolt's  researches,  the  compass  was  used 
by  the  Chinese  on  their  vessels  sailing  in  the  Indian  ocean 
seven  hundred  years  before  it  was  known  in  Europe.  It 
was  used  after  the  Chinese  manner — a  magnetic  needle 
placed  upon  a  buoyant  sliver  of  reed  floated  upon  a  basin 
of  water — in  the  Syrian  seas  as  early  as  1242.  In  1260 
Marco  Polo  brought  it  to  Italy  direct  from  China,  and,  in 
the  century  after,  Flavio  Gioja,  the  Neapolitan,  gave  it  its 
present  form.  To  the  Chinese  also  the  western  world  is 
indebted  for  paper.  It  was  invented  by  a  mandarin — Tsai 
Lun — one  hundred  and  fifty  years  B.C.  He  made  it  from 
the  bark  of  trees  and  from  old  linen.  Improved  from  time 
to  time,  it  found  its  way  at  last,  in  the  eighth  century,  to 
Samarcancl,  from  which,  over  the  routes  of  traffic,  it  passed 
to  Greece,  and  thence  to  Western  Europe. 

The  art  of  printing,  the  manufacture  of  gunpowder,  the 
mariner's  compass,  and  the  production  of  paper — the- 
cording  to  all  European  authorities,  are  the  agencies  that 
made  possible  the  transition  from  the  intellectual  gloom  and 
stagnation  of  the  middle  ages  to  the  glory  of  modern  civil 
ization  :  from  the  introduction  of  these  in  Europe  dates 
the  modern  development,  in  all  its  varied  and  abundant 
phases,  of  the  genius  and  strength  of  the  Caucasian  race. 
They  were  the  gift  of  China  to  the  countries  of  the  west. 
If  races  were  capable  of  gratitude,  and  sentiment  could 
weigh  in  the  intercourse  of  nations,  our  obligations  to  this 
oldest  of  peoples  would  be  great  indeed. 


30  THE  CHINESE, 


V. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  THOUGHT  OF  CHINA  ON  THE  INTEL 
LECTUAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  EUROPE. 

EVEN  more  than  in  the  inventions  to  which  I  have 
referred,  China  has  contributed  to  the  development  of  the 
west.  For,  while  I  do  not  intend  to  trench  on  ground  that 
may  be  debatable,  there  appears  to  be  little  or  no  doubt 
that  much  which  has  had  a  controlling  influence  on  Euro 
pean  thought  has  been  derived  from  the  earlier  manifesta 
tions  of  the  Chinese  intellect,  transmitted,  like  the  compass, 
through  Arab  channels.  It  is  from  Arabia  that  we  derive 
our  earliest  knowledge  of  China.  Its  intercourse  with  that 
country  by  sea  dates  from  the  time  of  Han-Hwan — the 
middle  of  the  second  century  of  our  era — and  was  con 
tinued  for  hundreds  of  years.  So  far  as  diligent  study  has 
enabled  me  to  ascertain,  the  dream  of  an  elixir  which  would 
prolong  human  life  to  an  immortality  on  earth,  and  of  a 
means  that  would  convert  base  materials  into  gold,  dates  in 
Europe  no  farther  back  than  the  middle  ages  ;  and  it  is 
known  that  the  study  of  alchemy  in  Europe  was  derived 
from  the  Arabian,  Gebir,  who  wrote  in  the  eighth  century 
of  our  era.  It  is  more  than  two  thousand  years  since  a 
devotee  of  Laou-tze  declared  the  discovery  of  both  to  the 
Emperor  Woo-te ;  and  it  is  notable  that  the  inseparability 
of  the  two,  the  elixir  of  life  and  the  transmutation  of 
metals,  which  runs  through  every  theory  of  the  alchemists, 
occurs  in  that  of  the  Chinese  original.  It  is  also  worthy 
of  remark  that  the  two  substances,  sulphur  and  quicksilver, 
which  the  alchemists  held  to  be  the  most  necessary  in  the 
transmutation  of  metals,  are  combined  in  cinnabar — ver 
milion — which  the  Chinese  visionary  declares  to  be  essen 
tial  in  his  method.  After  referring  to  the  miraculous 
potion,  the  Chinese  philosopher  avers,  "you  shall  mix  some 
vermilion  with  it,  and  this  vermilion  becomes  gold,  and 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  31 

this  gold  gives  everlasting  life."  Like  many  a  ruler  of 
later  and  lesser  times,  the  emperor  believed  the  glittering 
promise,  and  was  misled  to  his  disappointment  and  sorrow 
by  this  Chinese  Paracelsus. 

So  also  with  the  not  less  entrancing  belief  that  nature 
herself,  from  her  mysterious  resources,  may  provide  the 
means  of  an  eternal  youth.  The  story  of  Ponce  de  Leon 
in  our  own  country  is  no  myth.  From  the  sunny  fields  of 
Spain  the  adventurers  came  to  seek  in  the  sub-tropical 
forests  of  the  New  World  the  fountain  whose  waters 
should  resist  old  age.  But  the  dream  came  to  Spain  from 
Arabia  Felix,  and  Arabia  hearkened  its  promise  from  far 
Sinensis.  The  annals  of  China  and  Japan  agreethat  no  less 
than  two  hundred  and  nine  years  before  the  Christian  era 
the  physician  Ziko-Fuku  led  six  hundred  people  in  a  wan 
dering  quest  for  a  drug  that  would  confer  immortality. 
They  found  it  no  more  than  the  Spaniard  found  it  in  the 
springs  of  Florida,  but  they  settled  in  Japan,  and  gave  a 
long  line  of  kings  to  its  provinces,  and  the  letters  and  civil 
ization  of.  China  to  its  people. 

Again,  but  here  I  am  treading  close  to  the  realm  of  con 
jecture,  it  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  sudden  and  luxuriant 
growth  of  Arabian  literature,  except  upon  the  hypothesis 
of  a  foreign  influence.  The  Arabian  mind  was  not  origina 
tive.  It  was  skilled  in  the  arts  of  trade  and  disciplined  in 
the  faculties  of  war  and  of  toil,  but  in  all  else  was  receptive 
to  the  last  degree.  It  had  nowhere  the  gloomy  magnifi 
cence  of  the  Hebrew  mind,  but  rested  content  with  sensuous 
sights  and  sounds  and  thoughts.  Nowhere  in  the  literary 
style  of  the  Arabians  do  we  find  the  stern  and  almost  awful 
grandeur  of  the  writings  of  the  children  of  Judah,  but 
everywhere  florid  and  extravagant  forms  of  expression  that 
indicate  by  their  different  character  a  different  source.  Far 
closer  to  the  literary  manner  of  the  Chinese  than  to  that  of 
any  of  the  adjacent  peoples  are  the  works  of  those  who 
wrote  in  the  Syrio-Koreish,  which  formed  the  later  and 


32  THE   CHINESE, 

learned  language  of  Arabia.  "  Meadows  of  Gold  and 
Mines  of  Gems  "  sounds  like  the  title  of  a  Chinese  tale,  but 
it  is  that  of  the  history  of  El  Mas'udi,  an  Arabian  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  This  floridness  and  abundance  of 
metaphor  exists  also  among  the  Persians.  We  have  seen 
how  nearly  allied  that  country  has  been  to  China  in  periods 
extending  over  centuries  of  time,  and  it  is  known  that  the 
pictorial  and  keramic  art  of  Persia  is  strongly  tinctured 
with  that  of  China  introduced  more  than  sixteen  hundred 
years  ago.  The  literature  of  China  abounds  in  the  use  of 
superlatives  framed  in  shapes  the  most  elegant  and  refined. 
Their  tcha  or  tea,  as  we  term  it,  is  in  their  literature  no 
common  stimulant.  It  is  termed  "  the  leaf  that  drives  away 
the  five  causes  of  sorrow."  The  National  Institute,  whose 
members  are  those  who  have  taken  the  highest  degrees  in 
letters,  is  "  The  Court  of  the  Forest  of  Pencils."  The 
progress  of  the  poetic  art  is  itself  designated  under  the 
metaphor  of  a  tree,  of  which  the  ancient  book  of  odes  is 
the  root,  the  literature  of  the  time  of  Soo-loo  the  stem,  and 
that  of  Kien-gan  the  foliaged  branches  ;  while  in  the 
period  of  the  Tang  dynasty  came  forth  the  perfect  flowers 
and  fruit.  This,  the  Augustan  age  of  Chinese  literature, 
was,  in  the  eighth  century,  the  same  that  beheld  the  Arabians 
conquering  and  flourishing  at  Canton,  and  the  same  that 
witnessed  in  the  writings  of  the  Arabian  Gebir  the  rise  of 
that  alchemy  the  study  of  which  swept  like  wildfire  through 
Arabia  and  the  whole  of  the  Orient.  In  this  culminating- 
period  the  Chinese  intellect,  in  the  perfection  of  its  verbal 
forms,  and  the  Chinese  imagination,  in  the  luxuriance  and 
audacity  of  its  visions,  was  the  same  as  that  in  which  the 
intellect  and  fancy  of  the  Arab  first  awoke  to  abounding 
strength  and  vivacity.  Taking  into  view  the  close  connec 
tion  of  the  two  peoples  at,  and  long  before  and  after,  that 
time,  it  is  not  difficult  to  deduce  with  clearness  that  the  new- 
sown  seed  of  Arabian  letters  was  garnered  from  the  older 
harvests  of  Cathay. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  33 

It  is  true  that  in  this  same  century  the  Caliph  Almanzor 
gathered  together  at  Bagdad  all  that  was  available  of  the 
remnants  of  Greek,  Chaldean,  Egyptian  and  Persian  writ 
ings,  and  that  from  these  the  sciences  of  medicine,  of 
astronomy  and  of  mathematics  were  revivified  to  the  ultimate 
benefit  of  the  west.  But  it  is  not  these  that  this  paragraph 
concerns.  The  florid  exuberance  of  the  Arabic  writers 
came  not  from  the  chastely  symmetrical  elegance  of 
the  Greek,  from  the  severity  of  the  Egyptian,  or  from  the 
obscurity  of  Chaldea.  If  it  be  said  that  the  character  of 
Persian  literature  has  the  same  elements,  it  may  be  replied 
that  they  may  have  come  from  the  same  source.  The 
founder  of  the  Manichean  faith  in  the  second  century  of 
the  Christian  era  passed  a  portion  of  his  life  in  China,  and 
it  was  through  him  that  Chinese  pictorial  art  exercised  an 
enduring  influence  in  Iran. 

We  are  in  this  connection  to  remember  that  the  words 
of  the  Koran,  now  regarded  by  the  Moslem  as  the  perfec 
tion  of  style,  are  the  later  vesture  of  thoughts  spoken  orally 
by  the  Prophet,  and  taken  down  at  different  times  by  his 
disciples,  sometimes  "  written  by  their  pens  on  the  leaves 
of  the  palm-tree,  the  skins  of  animals,  or  even  the  shoulder- 
bones  of  sheep  ";  that  these  fragments  were  arranged  into 
a  volume  by  Abu-Bekr  ;  that  this  and  subsequent  manu 
scripts  were  so  unreliable  that  Othman,  the  third  Caliph, 
burned  them  all  and  gave  a  new  rescript  of  their  contents 
for  the  guidance  of  the  faithful.  The  intimacy  of  China 
with  the  west  at  that  time  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  before 
the  advent  of  Othman  to  the  Caliphate,  the  grandson  of 
Chosroes,  flying  from  the  "  victory  of  victories  "  won  by 
the  Arabians  over  the  Persians  at  Nehavend,  took  refuge 
in  China.  In  the  Koran  of  Othman  appear  traces  of  ima 
gery  more  like  that  of  a  follower  of  Lao-Tze  than  of  an 
Arab  limited  to  indigenous  forms  of  expression.  "  The 
wounds  of  the  warrior  at  the  day  of  judgment,"  it  says, 
"  shall  be  resplendent  as  vermilion,  and  odoriferous  as 


34  THE   CHINESE, 

musk."  Neither  vermilion  or  musk  were  the  products  of 
Arabia ;  they  were  brought  thither  from  the  marts  of 
China.  Where  the  illustrations  of  a  rising  literature  are 
drawn  from  that  of  another  land  the  influence  of  the  latter 
upon  the  former  needs  little  further  proof. 

It  may  be  asked,  at  this  point,  what  bearing  have  such 
researches  upon  the  practical  questions  of  to-day.  They 
may  be  considered  as  not  unworthy  of  remark  when  we  reflect 
that  the  intellect  which  gave  to  the  west  the  means  through 
which  it  passed  to  its  triumphs  of  modern  times,  the  dreams 
through  which  its  science  awoke  to  the  use  of  the  alembic 
and  the  crucible,  and,  it  may  be,  the  first  impulse  toward 
the  renaissance  of  letters,  is  existent  and  active  still  ;  1is- 
ciplined  by  the  experience  of  added  centuries,  and  destined, 
after  the  vicissitudes  of  ages,  to  confront  and  antagonize 
our  own.  If  I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the  past  of 
China  and  her  people,  upon  her  attributes,  and  upon  what 
she  has  done  in  the  world,  it  is  because  these  imply  her 
resources  and  indicate  her  moral  and  material  strength. 


VI. 

INTENSITY  AND  SYMMETRY  OF  THE  CHINESE  MIND. 

The  conditions  of  existence  from  a  time  anterior  to  the 
extension  of  their  villages  along  the  lengths  of  the  great 
rivers,  have  developed  the  peculiar  qualities  of  the  Chinese 
intellect  with  an  intensity  not  equalled  elsewhere  in  the 
world  ;  and  thus  a  symmetry,  perfect  of  its  kind,  in  the 
nature  of  the  people  enabled  them  to  excel  to  the  utmost 
within  the  narrow  boundaries  assigned  by  policy,  by  usage 
and  tradition.  This  excellence  and  others  akin  to  it, 
which  constitute  an  indefeasible  merit  so  far  as  concerns 
the  Chinese  in  their  own  country,  is  a  standing  menace 
as  an  element  in  the  relations  of  China  with  the  rest  of  the 
world. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  35 

In  any  employment  where  the  qualities  referred  to  are 
essential  to  success,  the  Chinaman,  their  inheritor  through 
a  hundred  generations,  is  to  be  esteemed  for  his  skill  and 
feared  for  his  rivalry.  The  Chinese  waterman  will  hold 
the  sheet  of  his  sail  with  one  hand  and  steer  the  craft  with 
the  other,  while  with  his  foot  he  feathers  an  oar  to  aid  the 
work  of  propulsion  ;  without  the  sail,  his  boat,  having  a 
tiller  worked  by  the  hands  and  sculls  worked  by  the  feet, 
moves  regardless  of  wind  and  tide,  at  seven  miles  an  hour, 
which  is  sixteen  per  cent,  faster  than  the  speed  on  land  of 
mail  stages  in  the  United  States.  The  Chinese  farmer,  in 
the  working  of  tilled  fields,  fits  the  ground  for  the  seed  by 
causing  one  laborer  to  dig  the  stubble  with  a  hoe,  another 
to  shake  off  the  earth  and  lay  the  haulm  in  little  bundles, 
while  a  third  stirs  the  untouched  soil  between  ;  this  man 
ual  labor  rendering  the  ground  suitable  to  be  further 
broken  by  a  plow  drawn  by  men  and  women  yoked  thereto, 
or,  if  the  ground  be  tough  from  the  presence  of  clay,  by  a 
single  buffalo.  The  Chinese  colorist  uses  the  pigments 
common  in  Europe,  but  secures  a  higher  brilliancy  by 
longer  and  more  careful  ievigation  in  their  production. 
What  the  Chinamen  has  once  seen  done  he  can  do  himself, 
with  refinements  of  execution  due  to  his  close  perception 
and  habits  of  accurate  work.  Once  taught,  he  works  as  an 
automaton,  but  as  an  automaton  endowed  with  conscious 
ness.  I  shall  never  forget  my  first  sight,  years  ago  in  San 
Francisco,  of  a  Chinese  artisan  at  his  work.  It  was  only  the 
making  of  cigars,  but  the  tawny  fingers  moved  as  if  di 
rected  by  the  regular  stroke  of  steam,  and  with  an  accu 
racy  that  no  mechanism  could  have  surpassed.  Making  no 
haste  and  no  pause,  impassive  to  the  curious  gaze  of  the 
onlooker,  his  horizon  apparently  bounded  by  the  space  of 
the  bench  before  him,  stunted  in  figure,  and  with  the  dull 
and  animalized  visage  peculiar  to  his  race,  he  stood,  a 
being  trained  to  manual  dexterity  by  almost  fifty  centuries 
of  labor,  but  devoid  of  the  wants,  the  aspirations,  the  high 


3 6  THE    CHINESE, 

humanity  with  all  its  attendant  needs  which  ages  of  intel 
lectual,  emotional,  and  physical  advancement  have  given  to 
the  races  with  which  time  and  circumstance  had  brought 
him  face  to  face.  As  concerns  the  capacity  for  labor  of 
of  the  Chinese,  all  travellers,  through  many  centuries,  unite 
in  the  praise  of  their  industry,  their  skill,  and  their  patience. 
Ibn  Batuta,  writing  nearly  five  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
declares  that  "  The  people  of  China,  of  all  mankind,  have 
the  greatest  taste  and  skill  in  the  arts."  He  says  of  the 
country  along  the  yellow  river,  that  it  is  more  flourishing 
than  that  of  the  Nile,  that  the  sugar  is  better  than  that  of 
Egypt,  the  melons  better  than  those  of  Ispahan,  the  plums 
better  than  those  "  which  you  get  at  Damascus."  What 
the  Chinese  were  in  his  time  they  were  a  thousand  years 
before  and  are  to-day,  the  most  patient,  persistent  and  in 
dustrious  workers  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  They  are  to 
the  rest  of  mankind  what  the  ant,  praised  by  Solomon  of 
old,  is  to  the  bee,  the  butterfly  and  the  beetle. 

The  conditions  of  soil,  climate,  and  geographical  position 
which  have  moulded  the  industries  of  China  have  furnished 
the  basis  of  her  governmental  policy.  The  country  is  a 
substantially  level  land,  with  no  considerable  mountain 
ranges  to  divide  the  territory  into  separate  or  separable 
nations  such  as  have  grown  up  between  the  mountain 
barriers  of  Europe,  nor  even  mountainous  regions  to 
shelter  rebellious  tribes  such,  for  example,  as  the  sixty  that 
inhabit  the  Caucasus.  Threaded  in  all  directions  by  water 
ways  converging  from  the  natural  boundaries  of  the  region 
on  the  west  until  they  mingle  with  the  two  great  rivers, 
and  these  latter  united  in  early  ages  by  the  great  canal, 
the  same  facilities  that  promoted  internal  commerce  facili 
tated  the  control  by  government  from  the  capital  to  the 
remotest  portion  of  the  empire.  Extending  over  many 
degrees  of  latitude,  the  climate  permitted  the  growth  of 
widely  varying  products.  The  general  contour  of  the  sur 
face  being  low  and  level,  watered  by  great  streams,  and 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  37 

favorable  to  the  construction  of  canals,  the  productions  of 
one  part  of  the  country  supplied  the  needs  of  others,  and 
an  internal  commerce  served  at  once  to  provide  occupation 
and  livelihood  to  a  large  proportion  of  the  people,  and  to 
supply  all  actual  necessities  of  the  whole.  Many  articles, 
both  agricultural  and  manufactured,  are  produced  in  their 
greatest  excellence  in  but  few  localities,  from  which  they 
are,  and  for  many  centuries  have  been,  distributed  to  other 
parts  of  the  country.  For  instance,  from  its  northern 
portions  have  been  drawn  its  supplies  of  salt,  and  in  a  less 
degree  of  coal,  iron,  and  porphyry,  copper,  and  gold, — musk 
from  the  mountains  of  Kansuh,  and  strange  drugs  from  the 
plain  of  Shantung.  From  Kansuh,  also  tobacco,  milder 
than  ours,  but  none  the  less  esteemed.  From  the  eastern 
provinces,  the  most  fertile,  healthful,  and  productive  of  the 
whole  kingdom,  and  containing  nearly  half  its  population, 
are  derived  the  woven  silks  of  Soochoo,  and  the  vividly 
colored  crapes  and  fine  embroideries  of  its  rhyming  neigh 
bor,  Hoochoo.  Witness,  also,  the  raw  silks  of  Kangsoo, 
the  satins  of  Nankin,  and  the  fermented  liquors  of  Shaou- 
king  ;  the  green  teas,  inks,  and  varnish  of  Gahnwuy,  the 
hemp  and  grass-cloth  of  Keangsi, — the  latter  made  from 
the  China  grass  or  ramie  which  has  baffled  the  inventors 
of  Europe  and  America  in  attempts  to  successfully  apply 
machinery  to  the  separation  of  its  fibres  ;  the  fine  porcelain 
of  Kinkinching,  and  the  hams  of  delicate  curing  from 
Kimwha  ;  the  rhubarb  and  musk,  the  paper  and  lead  of 
Honan.  From  the  western  regions,  nearer  the  sources  of 
the  two  great  rivers,  and  bordered  by  mountain  fastnesses 
occupied  by  tribes  yet  wild  and  unsubdued,  are  brought 
herbs  and  roots  of  medicinal  fame  ;  copper,  gold,  and 
brass  and  silver,  iron  also,  and  cinnabar  from  which  the 
celebrated  vermilion  is  made.  From  the  south  the  black 
teas,  the  iron,  alum,  and  tobacco,  the  camphor,  sugar,  and 
indigo  of  Fokeen  ;  the  sugar,  cassia,  and  betel-nuts  of 
Kwangtung,  and  the  varied  and  unrivalled  manufactures 


3§  7  'HE   CHINESE, 

of  Canton.  Such  are  a  few  of  the  sources  of  traffic  which 
unite  the  whole  of  China  in  a  network  of  business  relations 
that,  by  their  constant  attrition,  excite  the  national  intellect 
to  the  highest  activity  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life. 

Because  of  its  diversified  productions,  each  more  plenti 
ful  in  a  few  favored  districts,  each  portion  of  the  country 
has  found  itself  more  or  less  dependent  upon  all  the  others, 
and  each  has  found  in  the  others  its  sources  of  profitable 
labor  and  remunerative  trade.  And  although  traffic,  as  we 
have  seen,  naturally  arose  between  China  and  the  landward 
regions  adjoining,  and  with  adjacent  coasts,  and  there  afar, 
she  found  herself  practically  independent  of  foreign  com 
merce,  free  from  all  great  need  of  it,  at  a  period  so  remote 
that  no  record  exists  of  its  beginning.  In  the  watered 
lowlands  or  irrigable  regions  abundant  crops  of  rice,  in  the 
northern  provinces  of  millet,  gave  sustenance  and  afforded 
occupation  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people  ;  while  the 
other  arable  lands  cultivated  by  manual  labor,  or  only  by 
the  use  of  the  buffalo  as  an  animal  of  draft,  fertilized  and 
tilled  like  gardens,  gave  variety  to  the  agricultural  pro 
ductions  of  the  country,  and  yielded  for  a  given  area  more 
than  could  otherwise  by  any  possibility  be  obtained  ;  for 
the  Chinese  learned  early  that  the  surface  of  soil  required 
to  support  a  farm  animal  is  threefold  that  required  for 
the  sustenance  of  a  human  being.  The  localization  of 
special  products  and  special  industries,  and  the  interchange 
of  commodities,  afforded  still  other  outlets  for  industrial 
energy  and  provided  the  means  of  supplying  the  wants  of 
each  from  the  resources  of  all.  It  was  not  without  wisdom, 
therefore,  that  the  rulers  of  China  accepted  the  belief  that 
a  system  of  national  isolation  which  arose  originally  from 
geographical  position,  and  which  had  worked  well  for  un 
numbered  generations,  should  not  be  given  up;  that  a 
foreign  commerce,  of  which  she  had  little  need,  should  be 
discouraged  as  a  disturbing  element  having,  to  her,  stronger 
possibilities  of  mischief  than  of  good. 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  39 

The  principle  of  exclusion  which  has  marked  the  modern 
policy  of  China  became  definite  only  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago.  Up  to  that  time,  as  we  have  seen, 
communication  with  other  nations  had  been  common.  It 
began,  it  is  true,  when  the  discovery  of  the  passage  around 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  threw  the  Indian  travel  aside  from 
the  old  routes  by  the  ways  of  Arabia  and  of  Persia,  and  the 
ruder  peoples  of  the  Atlantic  coast  began  to  frequent  direct 
the  Chinese  seas.  But  with  the  end  of  the  thirty  years'  war  in 
Europe,  and  during  the  succeeding  thirty  years  between  the 
peace  of  Westphalia  and  the  treaty  of  Ryswick,  a  change 
had  come  over  the  spirit  of  Europe.  The  end  of  great  re 
ligious  wars  was  come.  Henceforth  the  energies  of  the  Ger 
manic  and  Latin  races  were  to  be  bent  upon  the  worship  of 
lucre,  upon  conquests  in  the  interests  of  trade,  upon  terri 
torial  aggrandizements  not  merely  for  political  power,  but 
for  the  possession  of  colonies  as  trading  posts  in  remote 
parts  of  the  world.  With  a  prescience  almost  marvellous 
of  what  the  two  succeeding  centuries  were  to  bring  forth, 
China  drew  within  herself,  and  reiterated  with  firm  purpose 
her  policy  of  keeping  her  own  people  at  home,  and  of  ex 
cluding  all  foreigners  from  her  borders.  This  was  carried 
into  effect  with  characteristic  thoroughness.  Except  under 
very  peculiar  circumstances  the  wandering  alien  was  killed 
at  short  notice  and  with  shorter  shrift.  The  Chinaman 
who  taught  the  language  of  the  country  to  a  foreigner  was 
subject  to  the  penalty  of  death.  When  the  missionaries, 
in  1805,  attempted  to  send  a  map  of  the  country  to  Europe 
their  colony  was  destroyed  by  the  sword.  The  western 
world  laughed  her  course  to  scorn  as  the  short-sighted  de 
vice  of  a  barbarian  nation.  Its  wisdom  was  demonstrated 
by  two  hundred  years  of  almost  incomparable  internal  prog 
ress.  Two  centuries  of  peace,  broken  only  by  slight  and 
local  rebellions,  followed  the  enforcement  of  the  policy  of 
exclusion.  Her  sorrows  began  when  that  policy  was  broken 
down  by  the  cupidity  and  the  artillery  of  the  west. 


40  THE   CHINESE, 


VII. 

RACIAL      PROCLIVITIES     OF      THE      CHINESE,    AND      PHYSICAL 
CONDITIONS    UNDER    WHICH    THEY    HAVE    DEVELOPED. 

We  may  now  pass  to  a  more  complex  phase  of  the  in 
quiry  ;  that  in  which  racial  proclivities  are  added  to  phys 
ical  conditions  as  factors  in  the  development  of  Chinese 
character,  and  of  the  elements,  good  or  bad,  of  Chinese 
power.  And  in  this  we  should  trace  the  induration  of 
native  endowments  by  the  reiterated  effect,  through  nearly 
five  thousand  years,  of  moral  and  intellectual  laws,  as  we 
have  sought  to  trace  the  results  of  physical  conditions  upon 
those  of  their  institutions  more  directly  formed  by  the 
moulding  action  of  subjective  influences.  The  process  is 
perhaps  more  difficult  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other, 
because  we  must  judge  of  character  by  its  manifestations, 
while  the  facts  of  the  physical  world  lie  upon  the  surface. 
But  it  is  not  necessarily  more  obscure  in  its  inductions  or 
uncertain  in  its  results.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  branch  of 
our  study  we  may  learn  that  current  Caucasian  public  opin 
ion  has  underrated  the  strength  and  astuteness  of  the 
Chinese  intellect,  and  has  overrated  any  other  claim  which 
China  may  have  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  Caucasian 
communities.  We  may  find,  if  I  mistake  not,  that  the 
Chinese  character  is  strong  not  only  in  its  positive  but  in 
its  negative  elements  ;  that  the  very  absence  of  those  finer 
and  higher  qualities,  which  are  with  us  believed  to  be  essen 
tial  to  enlightened  communities,  has  given,  and  will  con 
tinue  to  give,  a  preponderating  power  to  the  Chinese  in  all 
that  relates  to  merely  material  success  ;  in  brief,  that  their 
civilization  bears  the  same  relation  to  that  of  Europe  and 
America  that  the  proverbial  iron  pot  bore  to  the  flask  of 
porcelain  as  the  two  in  contact  floated  down  the  stream. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  language,  the  music,  the 
institutions,  the  forms  and  principles  of  government,  th" 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  41 

underlying  idea  of  the  religious  principles  of  the  masses, 
the  fine  arts,  the  literature,  and  the  industries  of  China 
were,  all  of  them,  self -evolved — sprang  from  no  foreign 
source,  and  were  unaffected  by  any  external  agency.  This 
carries  with  it  the  conviction  that  the  intellectual  type,  of 
which  these  are  exponents,  must  have  been  developed,  in 
all  its  essentials,  in  like  manner:  for  the  same  conditions 
which  exclude  the  idea  of  external  force  in  the  formation 
of  any  of  these  necessarily  exclude  any  such  ide'a  as  to  the 
formation,  development,  or  progress  of  the  racial  mind. 

That  this  is  the  case  is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
governmental,  social,  and  religious  institutions  are  simply 
an  extension  of  those  which  control  the  family  in  the  earliest 
stages  of  society.  This  can  be  traced  in  the  constitution  of 
the  Chinese  Empire  as  clearly  and  certainly  as  the  banyan 
tree,  spreading  its  connected  trunks  over  many  acres,  can  be 
traced  to  the  solitary  stem  from  which  it  originally  sprang. 
The  emperor  stands  as  paterfamilias  to  all  his  people  ;  the 
governors  of  the  eighteen  provinces  are  in  the  same  relation 
to  those  below  them,  and  so  on,  through  all  the  grades  of 
authority,  down  to  the  family  over  which  the  father  exer 
cises  absolute  control.  The  social  duties  have  for  their 
essential  foundation,  first,  reverence  for  the  head  of  the 
family,  and  second,  reverence  for  the  paternal  authority 
embodied  in  the  officers  of  the  law.  Religion,  although 
tolerated  in  almost  all  its  forms  by  the  State,  is,  with  the 
Chinese,  little  else  than  the  worship  of  ancestors,  notwith 
standing  that  their  mythology  is  full  of  gods, — some  of 
them  mortals  who  died  within  historic  times,  and  others 
merely  the  personifications  of  evils  which  they  dread,  for  to 
them  even  the  small-pox  is  an  object  of  adoration.  In  the 
dwellings  of  the  great  mandarins  are  sanctuaries  sacred  to 
the  burning  of  perfumes,  the  presentation  of  offerings,  and 
the  making  of  prostrations  to  the  memories  of  their  fore 
fathers,  and  for  communication  with  the  spirits  of  the  dead. 
The  poorest  laborer,  crowded  with  a  score  of  others  in  a 


42  THE   CHINESE, 

single  room  of  a  mud-built  dwelling,  has,  in  a  corner  of  his 
lodgement,  a  shelf  sacred  to  the  same  purpose.  Sacrilege  it 
self  is  denned  by  the  Book  of  Rites  as  disrespect  to  one's 
progenitors.  This,  strange  and  puerile  as  it  may  seem  to 
us,  becomes  grand  in  view  of'its  depth  and  intensity.  It 
shows  how  far  after  all,  the  emotional  nature  of  man  is  supe 
rior  to  external  surroundings.  For  this  worship,  which  dom 
inates  China  to  day.  as  it  has  done  for  thousands  of  years,  is 
but  the  survival,  developed  and  intensified,  of  the  awe  with 
which  the  earliest  Scythians,  impressed  with  the  fearful 
mystery  of  death,  heard  the  voices  of  the  departed  in  the 
storms  of  the  mountain  valleys  or  the  rustle  of  the  wind 
through  the  grass  of  the  starlit  steppes  of  the  North.  Neces 
sarily  associated  with  this  reverence  of  their  forefathers  is  a 
like  reverence  for  the  forms,  usages,  and  customs  of  an 
tiquity.  Hence  the  permanence  of  their  laws,  their  stability 
as  a  people,  notwithstanding  the  turmoil  of  many  terrible 
revolutions.  These  usages  and  customs  have  sprung  from 
the  same  source  as  the  beliefs  of  the  people,  and  are  the 
outgrowth  of  the  idea  of  the  family.  For  although  the  in 
habitants  of  northern  China  may  readily  be  distinguished 
by  speech  and  appearance  from  those  of  the  south,  yet  all 
read,  the  same  language,  and  all,  in  essential  things,  obey 
the  same  rules  and  follow  the  same  principles  of  life  and 
conduct,  and  this  not  only  as  individuals,  but  as  a  colossal 
community. 

Carrying  one  of  the  most  sacred  laws  of  the  family  into 
the  organization  of  the  state,  the  members  of  any  one  of 
the  twelve  tribes,  each  having  a  common  name,  must  marry 
outside  of  his  tribe,  and  with  one  whose  name  is  different 
from  his  own.  As  a  result  of  this,  the  relationship  of  blood 
extends  through  all  parts  of  the  Central  Kingdom;  and 
each  tribe,  though  distinct  in  itself,  is  bound  by  innumer 
able  ties  with  all  the  others.  The  idea  of  the  family 
implies  mutual  cooperation  and  helpfulness,  and  thus,  in 
theory  and  practice,  that  which  is  the  controlling  motive  of 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  43 

the  civil  organization  becomes  also  the  leading  method  by 
which  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life  are  carried  on.  Nowhere 
else  in  the  world  is  the  principle  of  cooperation  so  well 
understood,  and  nowhere  else  is  it  carried  into  effect  with 
so  much  utility.  No  man  stands  unsupported  and  alone 
among  the  Chinese.  Throughout  the  whole  country  there 
are  loan  societies  by  which  the  burdens  of  high  interest 
are  lessened.  Every  trade,  profession,  and  business  has  its 
associations  ;  even  the  robbers  and  beggars  form  them 
selves  into  guilds ;  and  in  locations  where  the  govern 
mental  authority  has  for  the  time  proved  too  weak  to 
maintain  order,  voluntary  combinations  of  the  inhabitants 
have  supplied  its  place. 

Thus  in  the  nation,  as  in  the  families  from  which  it 
sprang  and  which  formed  its  archetype,  the  most  absolute 
form  of  a  centralized  government  is  made  consistent  with 
the  utmost  freedom  of  individual  action.  The  personal 
volition  of  the  Chinese  is  subject  only  to  the  rites,  obser 
vances,  and  convictions,  which  are  as  much  a  portion  of  the 
people  as  is  heart  or  brain,  and  as  necessary  to  their 
normal  existence  as  the  air  they  breathe  or  the  soil  they 
cultivate.  For  their  convictions  are  so  strong,  their  rites 
and  observances  so  fixed  and  permanent,  that  no  conquer 
ing  dynasty  has  ever  changed  them  ;  so  strong  and  so 
permanent  indeed,  that  every  ruler  has  respected  and 
adopted  them.  When,  centuries  ago,  Genghiz  Khan,  the 
Tartar  chieftain,  subdued  the  land,  he  held  it  for  himself 
and  his  descendants  only  by  conforming  in  every  possible 
way  to  its  established  customs  ;  and  when  one  of  his  line 
1  attempted  to  disregard  these,  the  rule  of  the  Tartar  gave 
1  way  to  that  of  a  descendant  of  the  native  kings.  In 
modern  times  the  conquering  Mongols,  who  for  two 
|  hundred  and  forty  years  have  been  the  political  rulers  of 
China,  have  held  their  place  only  by  becoming  the  embodi 
ment  of  Chinese  traditions.  The  paternal  idea  is  indeed 
carried  consistently  to  the  utmost  limit,  in  providing  for 


44  THE    CHINESE, 

the  distant  as  well  as  for  the  immediate  welfare  of  the 
people.  It  is  this  that  from  remote  times  has  instituted 
the  multiplicity  of  schools,  and  has  opened  the  highest 
ranks,  below  that  of  the  emperor,  to  those  excelling  in 
scholarly  attainments  without  regard  to  their  original 
condition  of  life.  It  is  rare  to  find  in  China  an  individual 
who  cannot  read  and  write.  The  precepts  of  their  wise 
men  are  painted  upon  the  fronts  of  the  buildings,  so  that, 
literally,  he  who  runs  may  read  ;  and  an  official  gazette, 
probably  the  oldest  newspaper  in  the  world,  carries  the 
intelligence  of  the  work  of  the  government  to  the  remotest 
parts  of  the  empire. 


VIII. 

CHINA    YET    BUT    MIDWAY    IN    HER    CAREER. 

NOR  must  it  be  imagined  that  this  organization,  so 
simple  in  its  intricacy,  and  so  strong  in  its  apparent  weak 
ness,  is  a  thing  that  has  culminated  and  is  now  passing 
to  decay.  The  life  of  China  has  been  long,  and  her 
growth  proportionally  slow.  But  it  needs  but  a  brief 
recurrence  to  her  history  to  show  that  there  has  been 
constant  progress  toward  an  end  not  yet  reached,  a  devel 
opment  that  is  not  yet  completed.  We  have  seen  that 
nearly  three  thousand  years  before  our  era  the  Chinese 
possessed  laws  and  institutions,  had  invented  instruments 
of  music,  and  already  entered  upon  the  pursuits  of  a 
sedentary  people,  kept  their  records  by  arbitrary  signs 
formed  by  or  upon  knotted  cords.  It  was  more  than  six 
hundred  years  before  letters  were  devised  and  marked 
with  an  iron  stylus  on  bamboo,  to  formulate  thought  in 
written  speech,  long  ages  passed  before  the  painting  of  the 
characters  substituted  the  use  of  the  graving  point,  and 
then  long  lapse  of  time  preceded  the  invention  and  use  of 
type.  It  required  seventeen  hundred  years  from  the 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  45 

time  of  the  invention  of  letters  for  the  outgrowth  of  the 
Chinese  intellect  to  take  intelligible  form  in  the  writ 
ings  of  Confucius  and  Lao-Tze.  It  was  one  thousand 
years  later  still  before  the  system  of  the  great  exponent 
of  philosophy  and  of  the  laws  was  regularly  organized. 
And  it  was  four  hundred  years  after  this  before  the  gov 
ernment  itself  adopted  a  system  of  promoting  to  the 
utmost  those  arts  and  industries  upon  which  the  pros 
perity  of  the  people  more  and  more  depended  as  the  popu 
lation  increased,  and  the  conditions  of  life  became  more 
complex.  For  it  was  in  the  ninth  century  of  our  era, 
according  to  an  Arabian  chronicler,  that  the  Chinese  were, 
"  of  all  the  creatures  of  God,  those  who  have  the  most 
skill  in  the  hand,  in  all  that  concerns  the  arts  of  design 
and  fabrication,  and  for  every  kind  of  work."  The  same 
writer  says  "  that  when  a  man  has  made  anything  that 
probably  no  one  else  could  be  able  to,  he  carries  it  to  the 
governor,  demanding  a  recompense  for  the  progress  he  has 
made  in  the  art."  The  test  of  its  excellence  was,  that  it 
should  be  kept  for  a  year  subject  to  the  criticism  of  all  who 
came,  and  if  no  real  fault  was  found,  the  maker  was  pro 
moted  by  being  taken  into  service  of  the  government. 
Quaint  tales  are  told  in  Chinese  history  of  the  working  of 
this  plan,  and  illustrating,  not  only  the  excellence  to  which 
the  arts  were  brought  by  this  method,  but  the  closeness  of 
observation  and  severity  of  judgment  then,  as  now,  one  of 
the  salient  characteristics  of  the  race.  It  is  said  than  an 
artist  represented  a  sparrow,  perched  on  an  ear  of  standing 
grain,  with  such  consummate  skill  that  none  doubted  that 
the  bird  was  alive  ;  but  it  so  happened  that  the  ear  was 
shown  as  standing  straight,  whereas  if  the  bird  were 
perched  upon  it  the  stem  would  be  bent,  and  so  the  artist 
lost  his  reward.  In  the  arts,  as  in  letters  and  policy,  the 
same  slow  gradation  of  successive  progressive  steps  is 
seen.  It  certainly  required  many  hundred  years  to  con 
struct  the  immense  system  of  canals  which,  even  in  the 


46  THE   CHINESE, 

beginning  of  our  era,  are  known  to  have  aided  agriculture 
and  facilitated  the  inland  commerce  of  China.  But  it  was 
not  until  the  year  A.D.  605,  that  the  Emperor  Yangti  en 
larged  the  entire  system  and  connected  the  two  great 
rivers.  The  manufacture  of  porcelain  commenced  in  A.D. 
630.  In  A.D.  684,  began  the  public  examination  of  candi 
dates  for  literary  honors,  and  it  was  only  in  AD.  757,  or 
thereabouts,  that  books  were  bound  in  leaves.  In  A.D. 
1277  cotton  cloth  came  into  use,  although  the  fibre  is  men 
tioned  in  the  annals  more  than  eight  centuries  before. 
In  A.D.  1333  the  grand  canal  was  completed  to  unite  the 
two  great  rivers.  It  was  not  until  the  thirteenth  century 
that  the  distillation  of  grain  for  the  production  of  alcohol 
was  discovered  by  the  Chinese  ;  and  it  is  only  since  the 
accession  of  the  Manchoo  dynasty  that  foreign  grapes 
were  brought  into  the  country,  and  acclimated.  During 
all  the  centuries  China  has  been  expanding  from  the 
nucleus  of  Shen-si  and  its  adjacent  lands,  until  it  embraces 
the  whole  region  east  to  the  ocean,  north  to  the  Tartar 
steppes,  and  south  to  the  mountain  ridges  that  divide  it 
from  Tonquin.  But  I  shall  speak,  further  on,  of  the  expan 
sion  of  China  in  dominion  and  population. 

Although,  as  we  have  seen,  progress  has  been  slow  in 
China  it  has  been  sure  ;  and  every  forward  movement, 
whether  slight  or  great,  has  added  to  the  resources  and 
the  permanent  prosperity  of  the  people.  The  relations  of 
China  with  other  nations  during  the  past  century  have 
forced  upon  her  a  policy  that,  when  carefully  examined, 
will  show  a  more  rapid  and  more  aggressive  advancement 
than  any  other  portion  of  her  history ;  a  policy  which,  as 
we  shall  have  occasion  to  consider,  cannot,  if  continued, 
fail  to  have  the  most  important  bearing  upon  the  future  of 
our  own  country  and,  indeed,  upon  the  future  of  the  civil 
ization  of  our  race. 

The  retrospect  of  the  past  of  China  and  her  people 
shows  absolute  fixedness  and  absolute  permanence  in  the 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  47 

direction  of  the  Chinese  character,  but  nothing  that  indi 
cates  that  this  character  is  stationary.  Its  scope  is  limited 
in  certain  ways,  but  in  the  line  of  the  course  which  it 
has  followed  for  almost  five  thousand  years  its  path  lies 
open,  broad  and  clear,  as  it  did  in  the  infancy  of  recorded 
time.  Yet,  with  all  that  we  have  thus  far  seen,  a  fair  con 
ception  of  the  favorable  side  of  the  Chinese  character  is 
not  yet  fully  given.  Reference  has  already  been  made  to 
their  close  and  accurate  powers  of  observation  as  displayed 
nearly  ten  centuries  ago,  and  which  form  no  inconsiderate 
element  of  mental  strength  and  intellectual  success.  A 
distinguished  traveller,  in  the  early  part  of  the  present 
century,  attributed  to  this  the  numerous  discoveries  of  the 
Chinese  in  agriculture,  by  which  they  utilized  plants  of  no 
worth  in  other  parts  of  the  world.  And  the  thoroughness 
and  completeness  of  Chinese  ethics  and  practice,  as  applied 
to  the  paternal  guidance  of  the  population,  is  demonstrated 
by  the  fact  that  this  faculty  of  observation  has  been 
encouraged  by  imperial  teaching  and  example.  "I  would 
rather,"  said  the  emperor  Kiang-hi,  when  the  vine  was 
introduced,  "  give  a  new  fruit  or  grain  to  my  country  than 
to  build  an  hundred  porcelain  towers."  It  is  written  in  the 
Chinese  books  that  the  same  emperor  saw,  in  the  first  day 
of  the  sixth  moon,  a  field  where  rice  was  sown  to  be 
harvested  in  the  ninth.  But  amid  all  the  myriad  ears  there 
was  one  already  ripe.  He  gathered  it  ;  planted  it  through 
thirty  successive  seasons,  and  from  it  came  the  ya-mi  or 
imperial  rice,  the  only  kind  that  can  ripen  north  of  the 
Great  Wall,  or  that  will  yield  two  harvests  a  year  in  the 
south.  This  new  cereal  added  to  the  food  resources  of  the 
multitudes  of  Mantchuria,  and  may  yet  find  its  place  among 
the  grains  grown  in  our  own  country,  if,  indeed,  it  has  not 
already  done  so. 

This  faculty  of  observing  the  importance  of  apparently 
trivial  things  lay  literally  at  the  foundation  of  one  of  the 
greatest  works  of  China.  The  Tartar  horsemen  from  their 


4^  THE    CHINESE, 

infancy  were  seen  to  have  legs  bandied  to  the  curva 
ture  of  the  sides  of  the  saddle,  and  therefore  weak  in 
inarching  or  fighting  on  foot.  Hence  the  Great  Wall,  a 
thousand  miles  in  length,  was  built,  and  the  Tartars  were 
shut  out  in  the  same  manner  and  with  the  same  childlike 
forecast  as  the  wild  beasts  that  shared  with  them  the  wide 
pastoral  wildernesses  of  the  North.  The  accuracy  of  per 
ception  and  the  close  study  of  what  passes  under  their 
observation  form  the  basis  of  the  strong  imitative  power  of 
the  Chinese — the  faculty  that  renders  them  such  dangerous 
competitors  in  the  practice  of  every  art  affording  scope  for 
manual  dexterity.  The  same  faculty  has  also  made  them 
proficient  in  arts  which  they  employ  alike  in  the  ordinary 
relations  of  life  and  in  the  highest  work  of  diplomacy. 
They  have  been  well  said  to  be  a  nation  of  actors.  The 
Chinaman  is  as  subtle  and  facile  in  whatever  requires  intel 
lectual  work  as  he  is  in  the  performance  of  manual  labor. 
Add  to  these  faculties  that  of  a  suavity  and  politeness 
which,  though  ordinarily  formal  in  the  extreme,  is  never 
theless  refined  and  delicate.  In  nothing  does  this  appear 
more  clearly  than  in  Chinese  diplomatic  correspondence 
with  the  representatives  of  other  countries.  The  communi 
cations  from  Caucasian  powers  have  often  been  singularly 
rude  and  uncourteous  when  compared  with  the  polished 
and  considerate  phraseology  employed  by  the  Chinese 
dignitaries,  ^o^ civilization  can  be  wholly  deprecated 
which  has  fostered  and  developed  the  characteristics  which 
we  have  thus  far  seen  to  be  inherent  in  the  people  of 
China — characteristics  that,  almost  without  exception,  are 
found  to  be  universal  with  her  people  ;  with  the  ignorant 
as  with  the  educated,  with  the  laborer  as  with  the  mandarin. 
And  these  qualities,  always  formidable  in  contests  of  diplo 
macy  between  nations  as  between  individuals,  become 
doubly  so  when,  through  long  growth  and  persistence,  they 
have  been  intensified,  and  made  unchangeable  as  elements 
of  national  character. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  49 


IX. 

COMBINED    INTELLECTUAL     STRENGTH     AND      SAVAGERY    OF 
THE    CHINESE. 

HOWEVER  objectionable  from  our  standpoint  the  Chi 
nese  type  may  be,  it  is  of  marvellous  symmetry  when  consid 
ered  by  itself.  Its  more  ignoble  parts  are  not  in  any  wise 
inconsistent  with  those  which  compel  respect  ;  on  the  con 
trary,  its  virtues  give  vigor  to  its  vices,  and  the  two 
together,  combined  in  closest  union,  afford  a  racial  individ 
uality  that  for  aggressive  purposes  is  of  more  than  giant 
strength. 

The  slow  and  deliberate  savagery  of  the  Chinese  has 
heen  remarked  from  the  earliest  times  in  which  they  came 
in  contact  with  the  western  peoples,  and  is  shown  in  every 
relation  of  personal  life  and  national  policy.  In  the  ninth 
century  the  foreign  trade  of  China  temporarily  acquired 
considerable  magnitude,  and  led  to  the  settlement  of  many 
foreigners  in  her  seaport  cities.  One  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  of  these  were  massacred  at  one  time  in  the  capital 
city  of  Tche-Kiang.  These  were  Christians,  Hebrews, 
Mahometans  and  Magians,  whose  numbers  were  ascer 
tained  from  tax-lists  ;  of  the  number  of  natives  who  were 
murdered  on  the  same  occasion,  no  record  exists.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  was  the  first  instance  of 
the  promiscuous  slaughter  of  a  large  population.  Nor  from 
that  time  to  this  has  there  been  a  single  instance  in  which 
bloodshed  has  not  been  carried  to  the  utmost,  wherever 
territory  has  been  conquered  by  arms,  or  cities  have  been 
subjugated  by  siege.  Less  than  fifteen  years  ago,  the  city 
of  Schu-chang,  in  the  province  of  Kansuh,  was  held  by 
rebels,  and  was  invested  by  the  imperial  forces.  The 
fortifications  were  breached  by  the  explosion  of  mines  and 
then  carried  by  storm.  After  the  surrender  the  chiefs 
were  hacked  in  pieces.  Nearly  sixteen  hundred  men  were 


5°  THE   CHINESE, 

laid  on  the  ground  in  rows  and  then  beheaded.  In  the 
words  of  the  Pekin  Gazette:  "  The  same  night  the  same 
corps  entered  the  city,  and  set  it  on  fire  ;  bullets  and 
spears  did  their  work  till  the  whole  local  Mahometan 
population,  numbering  more  than  five  thousand  and  four 
hundred,  save  about  nine  hundred  females,  children  and 
old  folk,  were  given  to  the  flames,  and  peace  reigned  in 
Schu-chang."  The  official  account  adds,  with  the  greatest 
equanimity,  that  "  the  maiden  and  the  wife  had  far  from 
escaped  violation,"  and  closes  with  the  statement  that  the 
enemies  of  the  emperor  "  had  been  executed  as  their 
muster-roll  was  called,  like  sheep  or  pigs  in  their  pens,  not 
one  escaping."  Twenty  years  previously  the  insurgents 
exploded  a  mine  under  an  angle  of  the  walls  of  Nankin  and 
through  the  breach  thus  obtained  took  the  city  by  storm. 
It  contained  twenty  thousand  men,  women  and  children,  of 
whom  not  more  than  one  hundred  escaped.  The  rebels 
proclaimed, "  We  killed  them  all,  to  the  babes  at  the  breast ; 
we  left  not  a  root  to  sprout  from."  After  the  slaughter  the 
dead  bodies  were  thrown  into  the  Yang-tse-Kiang.  One  of 
the  rebel  chiefs  captured  by  the  imperial  forces  was 
subjected  to  torture  and  was  then  slowly  cut  up  into  small 
pieces  until  he  expired.  Such  is  now  and  has  been  from 
the  earliest  times  the  Chinese  idea  of  conducting  war. 

The  savagery  of  the  Chinese  like  everything  else  in 
China,  dates  back  unchanged  to  remote  ages,  and  inheres 
in  every  phase  of  life  or  vicissitude  of  fortune.  The  Shoc 
king  or  ancient  code  set  forth  what  should  have  been  a 
very  effective  means  of  insuring  accuracy  in  astronomical 
observations.  If  the  astronomers  failed  to  forecast  a 
coming  eclipse  at  the  proper  time  they  were  put  to  death, 
and  if  a  prophesied  eclipse  did  not  take  place  they  met 
with  the  same  desert. 

The  ingrained  ferocity  of  the  people,  however,  both  in 
the  present  and  the  past,  is  even  better  illustrated  by  their 
laws  and  by  their  social  customs,  which,  as  we  have  seen- 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  51 

have   been  the   slow   and  determinate  outgrowth    of   the 
nature  of  the  people  through  unnumbered  ages. 

The  intent  of  the  Chinese  law  is  to  strike  the  innocent 
as  well  as  the  guilty,  and  to  punish  the  offender  by  inflict 
ing  suffering,  not  only  upon  upon  him,  but  on  all  connected 
with  him.  A  person  convicted  of  high  treason  is  con 
demned  to  a  slow  and  painful  death — a  death  preceded  by 
torture  many  times  repeated  ;  for  executioners  are  skilful 
in  reviving  the  victim  for  renewed  torments.  Not  only  the 
criminal,  but  his  father,  grandfather,  sons,  grandsons, 
paternal  uncles  and  their  sons,  are  condemned  to  death, 
while  all  the  male  relations  under  sixteen  are  subjected  to 
a  treatment  too  gross  to  be  mentioned  here,  and  given  to 
the  great  mandarins  for  slaves.  The  female  relatives  of 
all  ages  are  consigned  to  slavery,  and  all  the  property  is 
confiscated.  Notwithstanding  these  terrible  penalties,  no 
trial,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  is  afforded  the 
culprit  ;  his  case  is  heard  without  a  jury  before  a  mandarin, 
who  is  at  liberty  to  hear  or  reject  as  much  of  the  testimony 
as  he  pleases  ;  and  although  a  rehearing  may  be  had  at  the 
instance  of  relatives,  yet  no  counsel  can  be  heard,  and  even 
the  argument  of  the  relations  is  a  matter  of  favor  and  not 
of  right.  The  debtors  of  the  emperor,  if  shown  or  claimed 
to  be  guilty  of  fraud,  are  strangled,  but  if  the  non-payment 
be  due  merely  to  misfortune,  the  imperial  creditor  con 
fiscates  their  property,  and  sells  their  wives  and  children 
to  slavery.  A  slave  who  strikes  his  master  is  beheaded  ; 
if  he  strike  with  intent  to  kill,  he  suffers  death  by  torture  ; 
if  he  accidentally  kill  his  master  he  is  imprisoned  for  a 
certain  time  and  then  strangled  ;  if  he  accidentally  wound 
him,  he  is  banished  to  the  distance  of  three  thousand 
le,  but  not  until  he  has  received  one  hundred  blows. 
If  a  slave  is  impudent  to  his  master,  he  is  strangled  ; 
if  to  any  of  the  relatives  of  his  master  in  the  first  degree, 
he  is  banished  for  two  years  and  receives  fifty  strokes 
with  the  bamboo.  The  nature  of  this  common  method 


52  THE   CHINESE, 

of  punishment  In  China  should  be  understood.  The 
victim  is  suspended  from  a  beam  by  means  of  a  rope 
tied  to  his  wrists  and  feet,  leaving  his  body  bent  in  the 
form  of  a  bow  ;  his  flesh  is  torn  to  tatters  by  executioners 
standing  beneath.  It  is  the  common  custom,  after  the 
prisoner  has  fainted,  to  restore  his  strength  by  remedies, 
in  order  to  permit  a  repetition  of  the  operation.  The  extent 
to  which  the  law,  in  other  words,  the  bamboo,  is  brought 
to  bear  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
when  a  trader  deliberately  plans  to  undersell  his  neighbors 
so  that  they  cannot  dispose  of  their  goods,  he  is  punished 
with  forty  strokes.  Chinese  marriages  are  not  arranged  by 
the  parties  directly  interested,  but  by  their  relatives.  If 
one  of  the  family  recalcitrates,  after  a  betrothal  has  been 
agreed  upon,  the  head  thereof  receives  fifty  strokes  with 
the  bamboo,  and  under  this  legal  process  the  wedding 
ceremony  takes  place  perforce. 

But  the  intent  and  practice  of  Chinese  legislation  do  not 
stop  with  even  this,  for  wherever  a  person  observes  a  line 
of  conduct  that  may  be  alleged  as  offending  propriety, 
even  if  there  be  no  special  infraction  of  any  established 
enactment,  he  is  liable  upon  a  very  informal  trial  and 
at  the  arbitrary  will  of  a  mandarin,  to  the  penalty  of  forty  to 
eighty  blows.  The  treatment  of  offenders  is  barbarous  in 
the  extreme.  A  French  traveller  recalls  an  instance  in 
which  a  number  of  prisoners,  who  were  being  carried 
through  the  country,  had  their  hands  spiked  to  the  cart 
in  default  of  ropes  with  which  to  tie  them.  Manacled 
prisoners  are  caused  to  lie  down  on  their  faces  and,  chained 
fast  in  this  recumbent  position,  have  heavy  timbers  placed 
upon  and  across  them,  and  in  this  manner  pass  the  night. 
An  inferior  official  who  neglects,  or  is  believed  to  neglect, 
his  duty,  has  a  long  bamboo  thrust  through  his  ears,  and 
a  flag  on  the  end  of  the  quivering  rod  tells  in  legible 
characters  the  alleged  cause  of  his  disgrace. 

These  peculiarities  of  Chinese  jurisprudence  readily  ac- 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  53 

count  for  the  fact  that  many  of  the  mandarins  speedily  grow 
rich.  Where  torture  is  the  mildest  form  of  punishment,  a 
due  gradation  must  render  the  death  penalty  frequent  for 
faults  considered  to  be  of  a  graver  kind.  About  a  hundred 
years  ago  a  subject  ventured  the  advice  that  the  emperor 
declare  his  successor,  for  which  heinous  offence  he  was  put 
to  death.  The  Ming  dynasty  declared  that  paper  money 
should  be  considered  the  same  as  copper  coin,  and  that 
whoever  demurred  to  this  should  be  beheaded.  Up  to  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  death  was  the  punish 
ment  of  natives  who  taught  Europeans  the  Chinese  language, 
or  who  revealed  to  foreigners  the  methods  of  Chinese 
manufacture.  During  the  inception  of  the  opium  trade, 
the  penalty  of  death  was  put  into  effect  to  deter  the  native 
population  from  purchasing  or  dealing  in  the  article. 
Before  the  power  of  the  western  nations  had  made  itself  so 
effectually  felt  in  China,  foreigners  penetrating  to  the  interior 
were  beaten,  starved,  and  finally  beheaded  for  their  temerity. 
But  more  exacting  and  more  terrific  even  than  the  cus 
tomary  law,  is  that  voluntarily  assumed  by  the  members 
of  the  trade  guilds  which  control  the  various  industries 
of  the  country.  A  consular  report  of  the  past  year  relates 
that  an  employer  in  the  gold  leaf  manufacture  infringed  a 
rule  of  his  craft  relating  to  apprentices.  He  was  bitten 
to  death,  each  one  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty  members 
of  the  guild  in  turn  fastening  his  teeth  in  the  flesh  of  the 
culprit. 

A  people  living  under  such  institutions  must  necessa 
rily  be  given  over  to  all  the  vices  that  form  the  common 
heritage  of  slaves,  at  the  same  time  that  their  peculiar 
structure  of  society  secures  to  them  many  of  the  strength 
ening  attributes  of  freedom.  Out  of  the  condition  of  con 
tinual  subjection  to  physical  force,  and  the  fear  of  bodily 
and  financial  harm,  have  been  developed  two  notable  facul 
ties  in  an  inordinate  degree  :  one,  that  of  acute  deceit,  by 
which  punishment  may  be  avoided  and  personal  benefit  ob- 


54  THE    CHINESE, 

tained  ;  the  other,  that  of  avarice,  and  desire  for  the  accu 
mulation  of  wealth  and  the  enjoyment  of  physical  ease. 
For  it  is  a  lav/  of  nature  that  people  appreciate  and  value 
most  that  which  they  are  in  most  danger  of  losing.  Out  of 
the  same  conditions,  also,  has  sprung  a  disregard  of  human 
life  which  permeates  all  classes  of  society.  When,  thirty 
years  ago,  a  new  emperor  ascended  the  throne,  he  put  to 
death  the  counsellors  of  his  father,  who,  under  the  stress  of 
necessity,  had  added  somewhat  to  the  privileges  of  the 
Europeans.  Among  the  lower  orders,  the  same  merciless 
spirit  is  shown  in  the  common  practice  of  infanticide  ;  and 
incidentally  and  in  a  less  degree,  by  the  almost  uniform 
neglect  of  the  boatmen  on  the  Chinese  water-ways  to  rescue 
those  whom  they  may  see  drowning  in  their  immediate 
neighborhood.  The  sick  are  sometimes  turned  out  of 
doors  to  die,  not  merely  to  save  the  labor  and  expense  of 
attention  ;  but  to  avoid  that  of  purifying  the  dwelling  from 
their  ghosts.  It  has  been  recorded  as  frequently  occurring 
that  gamblers,  after  having  lost  even  their  clothing,  have, 
in  the  northern  provinces,  been  deliberately  allowed  in  the 
depth  of  winter  to  freeze  to  death.  The  propensity  to  gam 
ing,  it  maybe  remarked,  exists  among  the  Chinese  to  an  ex 
tent  seen  nowhere  else  in  the  world.  When  his  last  coin  or 
his  last  rag  is  gone,  the  Chinaman  has  been  known  to  gamble 
for  his  fingers — each  player,  as  he  loses,  suffering  the  finger 
to  be  chopped  from  his  hand.  It  would  be  almost  impossible 
to  comprehend  a  character  so  frantic  or  so  debased,  were  it 
not  that  the  statements  are  made  on  authority  that  can 
hardly  be  doubted. 

X. 

VICIOUS     ELEMENTS     INHERENT     IN,     BUT     NOT      IMPAIRING 
STRENGTH    OF,    THE    CHINESE    CHARACTER. 

As  there  is  seldom  a  wide  discrepancy  between  the  social 
circumstances  of  a  people   and  the  laws  under  which  they 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  55 

live,  the  social  condition  of  the  Chinese  might  be  inferred 
from  what  has  been  already  said.  It  is  best  proven,  how 
ever,  by  their  treatment  of  women.  There  is  every  reason 
to  suppose  that  jealousy  was  the  original  motive  that  led  to 
the  mutilation  of  the  feet  of  females,  common  from  the  re 
motest  times  among  all  except  the  very  lowest  classes  of  the 
population  ;  and  the  custom  may  also  serve  as  an  example  of 
the  brutal  directness  with  which  the  Chinese  pursue  any  ob 
ject  they  may  have  in  view.  The  women  are  treated  as 
slaves  ;  are  presumed  to  have  no  souls  ;  and  are  in  many  cases 
subjects  of  established  and  regular  traffic.  A  member  of  the 
British  Legislative  Council  at  Hong  Kong  said,  nearly  fifty 
years  ago,  "  The  traffic  in  females  is  too  disgusting  to  de 
tail — the  facts  are  revolting  to  humanity."  Their  place  in 
the  household  is  one  of  abject  drudgery  ;  and,  as  in  infancy 
they  are  believed  to  be  hardly  worth  the  trouble  of  main 
tenance,  so  in  youth  they  are  not  thought  to  be  worth  the 
expense  of  education,  save  in  the  arts  of  embroidery  and 
the  like  ;  and  when  fully  grown,  are  measured  only  by  their 
value  as  instruments  of  labor  or  pleasure.  It  is  said  that 
the  experience  of  the  Chinese  women,  abject  and  degraded 
as  it  is,  has  led  many  of  them  to  a  faith,  repudiated  by 
their  masters,  in  a  hereafter  where  sorrow  does  not  exist — 
a  faith  springing  from  suffering  ;  the  strange  fruit  of 
earthly  despair. 

The  debasement  of  women  is  a  principle  that  appears  to 
dominate  all  Chinese  society,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
at  various  periods  women  have  had  no  insignificant  part  in 
the  government ;  and  that,  among  the  ruling  classes,  the 
wives  of  the  mandarins  share  with  their  husbands  the  hon 
ors  and  deference  due  to  the  high  position.  Fromthe  foun 
dation  of  the  great  dynasty  of  Han,  the  Chinese  laws  have 
recognized  the  right  of  parents  to  sell  their  children,  and 
this,  as  may  be  supposed,  has  borne  with  especial  severity 
upon  females;  some  writers  have  estimated  that  one-tenth  of 
the  women  of  China  are  sold  as  slaves.  Ibn  Batuta,  whose 


56  THE   CHINESE, 

travels  throw  so  much  light  on  Chinese  life  five  centuries  and 
more  ago,  says  that  it  is  accounted  no  disgrace  to  sell  sons 
and  daughters,  and  dwells  with  especial  emphasis  upon  the 
fact  that  "young  slave  girls  are  very  cheap  in  China."  It  is 
so  to  this  day,  and  in  these  present  years  of  grace  it  is  com 
mon  for  foreign  sailors  to  purchase  young  females  and  at 
the  end  of  their  short  sojourn  in  port  to  abandon  them. 
The  current  price  for  a  female  slave  in  China  is  from  ten 
to  thirty-five  dollars,  according  to  youth  and  comeliness. 
The  slaughter  of  the  innocents  has  attracted  the  attention 
of  travellers  in  China  in  all  ages.  Barrow,  who  wrote  from 
observation  early  in  the  present  century,  places  the  number 
of  female  infants  thrown  out  to  die  among  the  swarms  of 
hungry  dogs  in  the  narrow  streets  of  Pekin  at  nine  thou 
sand  each  year.  According  to  high  authority  the  number 
of  female  infants  annually  destroyed  in  the  Central  King 
dom  is  not  less  than  thirty  thousand. 

It  may  be  very  easily  conceived  that  in  such  a  society 
religion,  as  we  understand  the  term,  can  hardly  exist.  In 
all  countries,  religious  or  ethical  belief  is  subject  to  the 
peculiarly  resisting  inertia  of  racial  tendencies,  and  with  the 
Chinese  abstract  teachings  have  clearly  defined  limits  when 
it  is  sought  to  apply  them  in  practice.  To  the  average  China 
man  the  idea  of  sin  as  laid  down  by  the  theologians  and 
understood  by  the  religionists  of  the  west  is  unintelligible. 
To  him  wrong-doing  is  the  infraction  of  law  laid  down  by 
human  authority.  What  legislation  has  not  forbidden,  his 
conscience  leaves  him  free  to  indulge  in,  and  to  him  the 
human  law,  that  is  not  enforced  by  the  authority  from 
which  it  emanates,  is  a  dead  letter.  As  there  is  always  a 
wide  margin,  commonly  indicated  by  the  word  "vice," 
between  what  legislation  can  practically  prevent  and  what 
is  desired  by  sound  morality,  the  Chinese  sees  no  wrong 
in  many  things  that  are  condemned  as  wickedness  by  the 
religious,  and  stamped  as  infamous  by  the  public  opinion  of 
Caucasian  peoples. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  57 

It  may  be  very  readily  conceived  that  in  such  a  society 
religion,  in  the  Occidental  sense  of  the  term,  can  hardly 
exist.  That  the  Chinese  worship  the  spirits  of  their  ances 
tors  we  have  already  seen  ;  and  as  this  is  the  oldest  faith 
that  they  have  ever  known,  so  also  it  is  the  only  one  in 
which  the  belief  can  be  said  to  be  in  reality  more  than  for- 
11, al.  The  creed  of  Confucius  held  by  the  educated  classes 
is  simply  a  formula  of  materialism,  in  which  morality  is 
taught  because  of  its  beneficent  results  on  earth,  but  in 
which  there  is  no  gleam  or  glimmer  of  the  higher  truths 
which  lead  humanity  to  loftier  levels  of  thought  or  emotion, 
or  which  finds  in  a  future  life  the  rewards  or  punishments  of 
good  or  evil.  Mahometanism  in  China  is  even  less  in 
morals  and  ethics  than  it  is  in  Turkey  or  in  the  Barbary 
States  ;  and  Buddhism  there  retains  no  spark  of  the  lam 
bent  light  which  shone  on  India  in  the  earlier  days  of  the 
cult  of  Guatama.  The  Chinese  character — intellectual, 
moral,  or  emotional — appears  to  have  in  it  nothing  of  the 
religious  element,  as  the  term  is  understood  among  other 
races.  It  has  successfully  resisted  or  debased  creed  after 
creed  that  has  found  either  a  temporary  or  permanent  place 
within  its  borders.  The  soiled  streams  of  Mahometan  and 
Buddhistic  belief  found  deeper  soilure  in  the  degraded  ideas 
of  the  Chinese,  while  the  purer  faith  taught  by  the  Nestorians 
a  thousand  years  ago  was  extinguished  by  fire  and  sword  ; 
and  the  efforts  of  the  Roman  missionaries,  fervent,  earnest, 
and  continued  through  centuries,  have  grasped  only  a 
spotted  handful  here  and  there  from  the  sodden  harvests 
of  Chinese  belief.  Whatever  may  be  claimed  as  to  the  suc 
cesses  of  the  missionaries  of  more  recent  times,  or  other 
churches,  we  shall  see  further  on  that  they  afford  little  en 
couragement  to  Christian  hope  ;  and  if  in  the  future  they 
shall  bourgeon  into  promise  of  greater  fruitfulness,  it  must 
be  under  conditions  widely  different  from  those  that  now 
exist. 


nTTy/?^       THE    CHINESE, 

' 

XL 

SOCIAL    AND    ADMINISTRATIVE    SAGACITY   OF    THE    CHINESE. 

HAVING  considered  those  characteristics  which  belong 
to  the  Chinese  as  a  practically  homogeneous  people,  and 
which  are  common  to  all  grades  and  classes,  we  may  well 
ask  by  what  standard  of  intellect  and  attainment  this 
colossal  population  is  managed  and  controlled.  In  other 
words,  our  study  now  leads  us  to  an  examination  of  the 
status  for  governmental  purposes  of  the  dominant  classes. 
These  include,  of  course,  the  emperor  and  his  subordinates, 
the  mandarins.  Forty  years  ago,  these  latter  were  stated 
as  numbering  somewhat  less  than  fourteen  thousand 
scattered  through  the  country,  together  with  two 
thousand  four  hundred  at  the  court.  These  belong  to 
the  civil  branch  of  the  government ;  the  military  man 
darins  numbered  eighteen  thousand  five  hundred.  The 
former,  however,  rank  the  highest  in  point  of  popular 
respect  and  administrative  power,  and  with  them  mainly 
lies  the  control  of  the  vast  empire.  They  are,  and  have 
been,  for  many  hundred  years,  drawn  from  all  ranks 
of  the  people ;  their  promotion  through  the  several 
grades  being  dependent  upon  their  proficiency  in  literary 
studies  and  their  success  in  passing  literary  examinations. 
As  these  studies  are  those  that  have  been  accepted  and 
formulated  through  many  centuries,  the  officers  of  the 
empire  are  necessarily  imbued  with  the  popular  reverence 
for  antiquity,  and  are  fixed  and  riveted  to  established 
usages.  As  the  examinations  are  competitive,  it  follows 
that  the  strongest  intellects  are  those  which  rise  the  most 
readily  and  rise  the  highest.  As  craft  and  subtlety  have 
no  less  scope  in  this  than  in  any  other  department  of  effort, 
it  results  that  the  keenest  minds  come  soonest  into  power 
and  longest  maintain  their  place  on  the  treacherous  sands 
of  official  responsibility.  As  politeness,  not  less  than  the 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  59 

other  characteristics  we  have  mentioned,  is  always  an 
element  of  success,  those  who  combine  urbanity  with 
the  stronger  intellectual  traits  are  first  to  receive  the 
management  of  questions  of  state  requiring  high  adminis 
trative  skill. 

Reasoning  from  such  data,  we  may  infer  with  certainty 
that  both  the  home  and  foreign  policy  of  China  is  founded 
on  far-sighted  ideas  of  national  welfare,  and  is  carried  into 
effect  with  no  inferior  degree  of  executive  talent  and  ex 
perience  ;  but  this  conclusion  need  not  rest  on  inference 
only.  It  is  demonstrated  by  what  is  known  of  the  civil 
policy  of  China  during  many  centuries  past,  and  foreign 
ambassadors  have  not  been  slow  to  concede  qualities 
of  consummate  statesmanship  to  the  high  officials  with 
whom  they  have  been  brought  in  contact.  These  qualities 
are  displayed  in  the  strict  ceremonial  by  which  the  honors 
of  office  are  held  before  the  eyes  of  the  populace,  in  order 
that  authority  may  receive  its  full  meed  of  the  respect 
which  tends  to  insure  obedience  to  law  ;  each  grade  among 
the  mandarins  being  entitled  to  special  observances  of 
regard  from  all  below,  and  the  emperor  being  held  as  the 
incarnation  of  all  that  is  to  be  reverenced  by  men.  They 
are  shown  also  by  the  extent  to  which  the  people  are 
regularly  informed  of  all  that  is  believed  necessary  for 
them  to  know,  and  yet  systematically  misled  in  whatever 
becomes  the  interest,  for  the  time  being,  of  the  govern 
ment  to  withhold,  as  was  well  illustrated  after  the  victories 
of  the  English,  when  the  Chinese  throughout  the  empire 
were  made  to  believe  that  the  invaders,  instead  of  being 
victorious,  had  paid  tribute  for  permission  to  retire  from 
Canton.  They  are  illustrated  in  a  stronger  degree  in  the 
mingled  force  and  acuteness  with  which  the  outlying  de 
pendencies  are  held  in  allegiance  to  the  Central  Kingdom, 
a  leading  example  of  which  exists  in  the  political  subju 
gation  of  Thibet,  which  is  ruled  through  a  Grand  Lama 
whose  appointment  by  sinuous  methods  has  long  been  con- 


60  THE   CHINESE, 

trolled  by  the  emperor.  The  same  craft  and  astuteness 
were  also  displayed  in  the  influence  brought  to  bear  upon 
Nepaul  as  against  the  interests  of  Great  Britain,  and  with 
the  manifest  intent  of  maintaining  an  independent  State  as 
a  barrier  between  British  India  and  the  western  confines  of 
the  empire.  The  statesmanship  of  the  Chinese  rulers  is 
further  shown  in  the  systematic  knowledge  of  the  condition 
of  the  outside  nations,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  im 
perial  policy  has  been  modified  according  to  the  necessities 
indicated  by  external  circumstances. 

A  few  passing  references  to  historic  events  will  illustrate 
this.  A  thousand  years  before  our  era,  foreign  embassies 
passed  from  India  to  China,  and  from  that  time  to  the 
present  there  has  been  no  exigency  requiring  the  exercise 
of  astute  foreign  diplomacy  that  has  failed  to  call  it  forth. 
Wherever  interest,  whether  of  trade  or  of  policy,  has  made 
it  requisite  that  the  representatives  of  China  should  pass  to 
foreign  governments,  they  have  done  so.  And  what  is  now 
deemed  a  step  forward  on  her  part  in  sending  envoys  to 
the  United  States  and  the  western  powers  is  but  a  recur 
rence  to  what  she  has  done,  on  occasion,  during  many 
centuries.  In  the  year  141  B.C.,  the  Emperor  Woo-te  sent 
embassies  to  encourage  foreign  trade,  and  twenty  years 
later  his  successor  sent  a  plenipotentiary,  with  a  retinue  of 
one  hundred  persons,  to  visit  the  regions  of  the  west  ;  and 
only  twenty  years  later  still,  the  Chinese  Emperor  received 
tribute-bearing  embassies  from  Japan.  Two  centuries  and 
a  half  after  this  a  similar  tribute  came  from  the  King  of 
India ;  and  after  this  in  rapid  succession  were  embassies 
from  Rome  and  India  ;  and  so  onward,  although  at  com 
paratively  long  intervals,  down  to  the  present  time,  ambas 
sadors  have  been  sent  and  received  by  the  Chinese  Govern 
ment.  Where  Chinese  interests  have  required  it,  her 
embassies  have  gone  forth  with  pomp  to  distant  nations, 
and,  in  like  manner,  when  she  had  no  purpose  to  serve, 
those  of  other  countries  have  been  met  with  the  same  pomp 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  6* 

harnessed  in  the  guise  of  contempt.  But  whatever  her 
course,  there  has  seldom  been  an  instance  in  which,  from 
her  standpoint,  her  methods  have  not  been  dictated  by  a 
far-sighted  and  enlightened  regard  for  the  welfare  of  her 
people. 

We  have  already  seen  that  more  than  two  thousand  years 
ago  she  encouraged  trade  with  nations  less  powerful  than 
herself,  and  that  in  the  ninth  century  her  ports  were  open 
to  the  commerce  of  other  lands.  This  was  continued  down 
through  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  and  we 
have  no  record  of  systematic  opposition  to  foreign  com 
merce  so  long  as  the  nations  from  which  it  came  were 
comparatively  weak.  Two  centuries  ago  the  continent  of 
America  was  almost  a  wilderness,  and  Europe  was  com 
posed  of  small,  despotic,  and  far  from  prosperous  States. 
But  the  spirit  of  commercial  enterprise,  directed  by  state 
craft  and  supported  by  force,  was  rampant  among  the 
people  of  the  west,  and  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  aggrandized  the  western  powers.  In 
proportion  as  these,  which  form  the  world  external  to 
China,  grew  great  and  prosperous,  in  proportion  as  their 
military  strength  and  commercial  enterprise  increased,  just 
in  this  same  ratio  did  China  close  her  seaboard  to  for 
eign  access.  It  was  not  for  nothing  that  the  Chinese 
rulers  foresaw  that  the  rapid  strides  of  Caucasian  civili 
zation  would  render  them  dangerous  in  the  same  degree 
that  they  were  permitted  to  obtain  a  foothold  on  Chinese 
soil. 

Nor  was  it  alone  the  material  advancement  of  the  west 
ern  nations  that  bore  out  this  policy  and  justified  this  prin 
ciple  of.  national  action.  The  spread  of  liberty  which  has 
successively  changed  and  modified  the  administration  of 
every  government  of  Europe,  saving  that  of  Turkey,  would 
have  been  inimical  to  the  permanence  of  the  Chinese  politi 
cal  hierarchy ;  and  it  is  not  without  interest  and  instruction 
that  we  learn  that  it  was  a  knowledge  of  the  French  revolu- 


62  THE   CHINESE, 

tion  that,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  caused  the 
authorities  of  China  to  restrict  the  privileges  of  foreign 
traffic,  to  attempt  to  exclude  foreigners  from  Canton,  and 
to  commit  other  works  of  quasi  hostility  which  were  des 
tined  ultimately  to  end  in  war. 

Nor  is  the  statesmanship  of  the  Chinese  displayed  in  a 
less  degree  in  their  home  policy.  Every  Chinese  male  is 
registered,  and  he  can  depart  to  no  corner  of  the  earth  but 
his  place  and  locality  are  known,  and  the  idea  of  fealty  to 
his  native  land  kept  before  him  as  a  governing  principle. 
He  belongs  to  his  country  during  life,  his  country  watches 
his  course  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  and  indicates  his 
burial-place  when  life  has  departed.  Within  a  few  weeks 
after  the  unhappy  occurrences  in  Colorado  in  1885,  a  re 
port  of  the  Chinese  Consul  gave  the  name  and  age  of  every 
Chinaman  injured  or  killed,  the  place  of  his  birth,  and  his 
nearest  relative  in  China.  The  system  of  espionage  ex 
tends  even  to  business  relations,  and  its  thoroughness  and 
accuracy  are  sometimes  surprisingly  displayed.  When,  in 
1839,  tne  opium  was  delivered  up  by  the  British  at  the 
Bogue  forts,  the  Chinese  Commissioner,  Lin,  was  aware, 
before  any  account  had  been  rendered,  of  the  exact  number 
of  chests  of  the  drug  on  board  the  several  vessels  in  the 
harbor.  The  paternal  character  of  the  government,  as  well 
as  the  rugged  statesmanship  of  the  Chinese,  is  further 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  this  opium,  upwards  of  twenty 
thousand  chests,  and  having  an  actual  value  of  six  millions 
of  dollars,  was  totally  destroyed.  The  ferocity  with  which 
their  laws  are  executed,  to  which  allusion  has  already  been 
made,  is  also  further  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  a  miserable 
creature  who  attempted  to  carry  off  some  small  pieces  from 
the  general  destruction  was,  on  detection,  immediately  put 
to  death. 

Such  is  the  Chinese  nationality  ;  such  are  its  people  ; 
and  such  its  rulers.  It  only  remains  for  the  completion  of 
our  analysis  of  this  people,  to  consider  their  purely  physical 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  63 

conditions,  as  we  have  already  considered  their  industrial, 
political,  and  moral  nature. 


XII. 

PHYSICAL    NATURE    OF    THE    CHINESE. 

THE  Chinese  are  children  of  the  temperate  zone,  and 
have  developed  under  the  influence  of  a  climate  sufficiently 
cold  and  variable  to  insure  considerable  strength,  together 
with  great  endurance  and  elasticity  to  the  physical  frame, 
and  yet  warm  enough  to  yield  in  abundance  the  staple  food 
of  more  tropical  lands.  Rice,  in  the  larger  part  of  the 
kingdom,  has  been  from  time  immemorial  the  principal 
sustenance  of  the  people  ;  and  the  fact  that  they  have  not 
deteriorated  to  a  greater  extent  under  the  influence  of  a 
crowded  population  and,  with  many  classes,  of  a  compara 
tive  insufficiency  of  food,  is  doubtless  because  this  grain 
contains  a  larger  proportion  of  phosphates  than  any  other, 
and  thus  renders  possible  the  full  development  of  brain 
and  bone  even  when  ordinary  nutrition  is  diminished. 
Physiologically  considered,  the  organization  of  the  Chinese 
is  coarse,  as  is  indicated,  for  example,  by  the  hair,  ordinarily 
so  thick  and  strong  that  they,  by  comparison,  liken  that  of 
Europeans  to  soft  and  downy  fur.  This  coarseness  of 
physical  fibre  has,  however,  for  them,  one  great  advantage, 
for,  as  is  the  case  with  animals,  they  recover  from  all  kinds 
of  accidents,  wounds  and  bruises  with  much  greater  rapidity 
and,  as  one  writer  has  stated,  "  with  fewer  symptoms  of 
any  kind  of  danger,"  than  is  the  case  with  Caucasians.  As 
concerns  ability  for  labor,  they  are  generally  considered  as 
possessed  of  great  endurance  rather  than  of  great  bodily 
strength.  It  was  calculated  that,  of  those  employed  in  the 
construction  of  the  Pacific  Railway,  it  required  five  Chinese 
laborers  to  do  the  work  of  four  of  those  of  our  own  country  ; 
and  I  was  informed  in  Nevada  that  wnile  they  were  ad- 


64  THE   CHINESE, 

mirably  fitted  for  lighter  work,  they  were  unable  to  per 
form  the  heavy  labor  in  the  deep  silver  mines.  Yet  this  opin 
ion,  upon  the  testimony  of  many  who  have  been  familiar  with 
the  Chinaman  at  home,  is  subject  to  modification  in  their 
favor.  One  writer  says  that  "  a  more  powerful  race  of  men 
exists  nowhere  than  the  coolies  of  the  port  of  Canton,"  and 
that  "  the  weights  which  they  carry  with  ease  on  a  bamboo 
would  break  down  most  other  Asiatics."  And  another,  in 
speaking  of  the  bearers  who  carried  him  in  a  sedan-chair 
over  a  precipitous  road,  declares  that  though  "  clad  in  a  few 
rags  and  looking  as  emaciated  as  if  just  ready  to  fall  down 
dead,"  they  were  very  strong,  and  that  a  well-fed  horse 
could  not  have  carried  the  burden — which  of  course  was 
borne  by  two  men — with  the  same  ease,  speed,  and  sure- 
footedness.  They  are  conceded  to  be  much  stronger  and 
better  sailors  than  the  Lascars  often  shipped  on  British 
vessels  on  the  eastern  seas.  In  point  of  endurance  their 
low  nervous  organization — for  the  Chinaman  certainly 
seems  far  less  sensitive  to  physical  pain  than  are  the  people 
of  any  other  civilized  race — secures  to  them  a  manifest  ad 
vantage.  In  resisting  the  effects  of  hunger  and  cold  the 
Chinaman  is  the  equal  of  any,  savage  or  other,  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  In  any  event,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  number  of  occupations  in  which  his  strength  is  inad 
equate  to  the  greatest  performance  possible  with  laboring 
men,  is  comparatively  small.  It  should  be  kept  in  mind 
that,  both  in  civil  and  military  pursuits,  the  value  of  physi 
cal  strength,  pure  and  simple,  has  been  constantly  diminish 
ing  for  more  than  two  hundred  years.  What  gunpowder 
and  arms  of  precision  have  done  to  degrade  the  value 
of  physical  prowess  in  war,  improvements  in  implements 
and  machinery  have  done  to  debase  the  value  of  phy 
sical  strength  in  arts  and  industries,  and  the  Chinaman 
is  equal  to  all  the  demands,  whether  of  peace  or  war,  of 
civilized  or  barbaric  existence. 

Among    the    Chinese,  the    usual    marriageable     age    is 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  65 

fifteen  with  both  sexes.  They  marry  young  for  the  reason 
that  the  male  children  become  at  an  early  age  a  source  of 
profit  to  their  parents,  and  the  marriages  are  usually  pro 
lific.  Such  being  the  reason — instead  of  early  maturity,  as 
in  tropical  or  semi-tropical  climates — there  is  not  that  pre 
mature  old  age  among  them  which  one  would  otherwise 
expect ;  for  although  the  proportion  who  reach  seventy 
years  is  perhaps  less  than  in  Europe  or  America,  probably 
the  number  that  are  capable  of  severe  labor  at  the  age  of 
sixty  is  equal  to  that  of  any  other  country.  In  the  eastern 
provinces  especially,  the  largest  and  most  populous  of  the 
empire,  the  people  are  hale  and  hearty,  and  have  well 
been  characterized  by  a  close  observer  as  "  a  great  and 
healthy  mass  of  human  beings,  athletic  and  industrious,  and 
capable  of  the  most  enormous  and  unwearied  industry." 
That  life  in  China  has  reached  a  certain  balance — an  equi 
librium  between  the  influences  which  sustain  and  those 
which  destroy — is  manifest  when  we  consider  that  by  far  the 
larger  portion  of  this  immense  population  live  in  the  depths 
of  indigence,  and  under  conditions  of  life  that,  if  endured 
by  the  people  of  other  civilized  countries,  would  quickly 
reduce  them  to  mental  and  physical  inanition. 

Some  of  the  causes  of  this  we  have  already  considered, 
but  there  is  still  another  not  less  important.  Owing  to  the 
low  ebb  of  medical  knowledge  among  the  Chinese  and  the 
hardships  incident  to  the  lives  of  the  masses,  the  weaker 
among  the  children  die  early,  and  only  the  stronger  sur 
vive  to  perpetuate  the  race.  This,  continued  through  a 
hundred  and  fifty  generations,  has  produced  the  physical 
type  of  the  people  ;  a  type  in  which  a  maximum  of  mental 
activity  and  muscular  endurance  is  derived  from  a  mini 
mum  of  comfort  and  nutrition. 


66  THE   CHINESE, 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

SEVERITY    OF    CONDITIONS  OF    LIFE    IN  CHINA. 

THE  fact  that  the  extent  of  the  population  has  been 
limited  only  by  the  means  of  subsistence,  has  produced 
the  rigorous  and  severe  conditions  of  life  and  society  which 
provide  to  the  Chinese  the  strongest  motives  for  leaving 
their  own  country,  when  the  barriers  of  emigration  are 
thrown  down,  and  at  the  same  time  render  them  most 
dangerous  competitors  wherever  they  may  find  their  way. 
In  their  own  country  their  condition  is  manifested  by  the 
crowding  of  their  dwellings,  by  low  rates  of  wages,  by  a 
small  scale  of  business  when  they  rise  above  the  status  of 
mere  laborers;  and  by  the  narrowest  profits  on  any  ordi 
nary  business  transaction,  and  by  the  desperate  penury 
which  assails  the  laboring  population  at  every  turn.  In 
their  necessities  they  have  laid  hold  of  every  material  for 
food  that  will  sustain  life — on  however  low  a  plane.  The 
common  belief  that  they  devour  rats,  mice,  and  snakes  is  no 
myth,  but  rests  on  testimony  too  strong  to  be  disputed. 
The  common  rat  reaches  a  great  size  on  the  rich  alluvials 
and  is  hunted  by  the  full-grown  Chinaman  as  a  desirable 
morsel,  with  as  much  gusto  as  a  rabbit  is  snared  by  an 
American  boy.  With  them  dogs  and  cats  sell  in  the  markets 
for  the  same  price  as  the  flesh  of  swine.  Even  the  mineral 
kingdom  is  laid  under  tribute,  and  it  is  common  to  mix 
gypsum  with  grain  to  form  a  jelly  which  is  used  for  food. 
Two  pounds  of  rice  per  day  meets  the  wants,  and  often  ex 
ceeds  the  expectations,  of  the  Chinese  laborer.  Often  a 
much  less  quantity  supplemented  by  salted  fish  or  by  vege 
tables,  especially  by  the  leaves  of  a  huge  cabbage  .which 
the  Chinese  raise  in  enormous  quantities,  and  which,  as  pre 
pared  by  them  with  vinegar  and  salt,  is  probably  the  origi 
nal  of  the  sauerkraut  of  Europe,  forms  the  staple  food  of 
the  laboring  Chinese.  Frequent  inundations, — that  which 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  67 

occurred  on  the  Yellow  River  but  a  few  weeks  since  des 
troyed  two  millions  of  people  and  wasted  the  substance  of 
myriads  of  others — seasons  of  drought,  swarms  of  locusts, 
and  other  disasters,  weigh  heavily  upon  the  masses,  for  they 
live  continually  up  to  the  limit  of  their  miserable  resources 
with  no  margin  to  cover  misfortune. 

The  home  of  the  coolie  is  utterly  devoid  of  comforts. 
At  his  meals  the  whole  family  sits  a-squat  around  the  large 
pot  which,  with  a  frying  pan  and  a  few  earthen  jars,  consti 
tutes  the  furniture  of  the  dwelling.  The  bed  of  the  average 
Chinaman  at  home  consists  of  boards  supported  on  saw- 
horses  and  covered  with  a  mat.  "  In  judging  the  Chinese  " 
says  an  English  historian,  "  it  ought  never  to  be  forgotten 
how  fearful  is  the  struggle  for  daily  subsistence.  The 
entire  produce  of  the  land  is  but  just  capable  of  maintain 
ing  the  population  ;  millions  have  no  other  thought  save 
that  of  obtaining  by  toil  sufficient  to  ward  off  starvation  to 
themselves  and  their  families."  Amid  so  much  of  suffering 
the  precepts  of  charity  concerning  others  and  the  principle 
that  its  benefits  should  begin  at  home  inevitably  collide. 
But  the  Chinese  coolie  has  reconciled  their  inconsistency. 
He  will  not  deny  a  beggar,  but  custom  sanctions  the  gift  of 
as  much  rice  as  will  lie  on  his  thumb-nail.  Nor  is  this  devoid- 
of  the  practical  common  sense  inherent  in  all  grades  of  the 
people  of  China.  The  infinitesimal  dole  can  hardly  injure 
the  poorest  donor  ;  with  diligence  the  donee  can  manage 
to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  and  yet  is  hardly  encouraged 
to  mendicancy  by  the  extent  of  the  bounty. 

The  houses  of  China  vary  in  construction  in  different 
portion  of  the  country.  In  some  parts  they  are  of  brick  ; 
in  others,  built  of  mud  laid  up  the  same  as  concrete  walls 
are  sometimes  made  with  us  ;  in  others,  the  sides  are  com 
posed  mainly  of  matting  coated  with  mud  ;  while  in  one 
large  district  the  habitations  are  dug  in  the  earth  and  form 
a  system  of  caves  or  subterranean  dwellings.  Even  in  the 
large  cities  a  family  of  ten  persons  can  live  for  about  four 


68  THE   CHINESE, 

hundred  dollars  a  year,  including  clothing  and  food,  and 
with  the  unusual  accommodation  of  a  whole  dwelling  to 
themselves.  The  expense  of  living  to  a  laborer  is  stated 
at  from  two  to  two  and  a  half  dollars  a  month,  which  in 
cludes  food,  clothes  and  rent.  Away  from  the  cities  the 
expense  is  reduced  fifty  per  cent.  In  some  cases  from  fifty 
to  sixty  people  inhabit  a  single  dwelling,  which  reduces  the 
expense  to  each  still  further.  The  Chinese  emigrants  at 
Batavia,  the  Dutch  capital  of  Java,  showed  in  each  house 
ten  men  fit  to  bear  arms. 

Under  such  conditions,  comfort,  health,  and  morals  must 
be  reduced  to  the  lowest  degree.  This  is  illustrated  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  north  of  China  the  beds  are  made  larger  or 
smaller  in  proportion  to  the  family,  are  constructed  of  brick 
and  are  warmed  by  small  stoves.  The  usual  size  of  Chinese 
houses,  except  among  the  limited  wealthy  class,  is  thirty 
feet  long,  ten  wide,  and  eight  high,  with  streets  from  ten  to 
twenty  feet  broad  running  parallel  between  the  buildings, 
and  crossed  by  narrow  and  dirty  lanes  ;  and,  according  to 
observant  travellers,  "  neither  table,  chair,  nor  other  article 
of  furniture  can  be  seen  in  the  dwellings  of  the  poor." 

The  rates  of  wages  correspond  with  the  squalor  and  dire 
necessities  of  the  modes  of  life.  A  traveller  in  China,  who 
wrote  about  fifteen  years  ago,  states  the  wages  of  an  agricul 
tural  laborer  at  from  eight  to  ten  dollars  per  year  and  board, 
Out  of  this  he  pays  eighty  cents  tax  ;  a  dollar  is  devoted  to 
the  tablets  which  in  even  the  poorest  dwellings  are  placed 
upon  the  walls  as  objects  of  worship;  two  dollars  for  rent, 
and  the  balance  for  clothing  for  himself  and  family,  and 
food  for  the  latter.  The  wages  of  a  female  laborer  are 
stated  to  be  from  four  to  five  dollars  per  year,  without  board. 
The  taxes  are  onerous  upon  all  classes  and  bring  down  the 
twenty-two  cents  per  diem,  boarding  themselves,  of  carpen 
ters  and  masons  to  about  the  wages  of  the  laborer  in  the 
field.  Medhurst,  an  English  official  who  resided  in  China 
for  many  years,  states  the  suffering  of  the  people  from 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  69 

poverty  as  "  indescribable,"  and  that  a  man  working  from 
morning  till  night  obtains  about  four  pence,  which  may  be 
fairly  translated  as  eight  cents,  for  the  sustenance  of  his 
wife  and  children. 

Neither  does  skilled  labor  fare  much  better.  In  the  cities, 
a  tailor,  though  protected  by  his  guild,  receives  only  from 
four  to  five  dollars  per  month,  if  supplied,  in  addition,  with 
his  food,  which  is  estimated  at  a  dollar  and  a  half.  For 
this,  says  the  authority — a  consular  report — from  which  I 
quote,  "  he  toils  unceasingly,  except  on  the  last  five  days  of 
the  year,  the  first  ten  days  of  the  new  year  and  four  other 
holidays."  As  concerns  the  farm  laborer,  "  the  average 
wages  of  an  able-bodied  young  man  is  twelve  dollars  per 
annum,  food!  and  straw  shoes."  If  he  be  steady,  temperate, 
industrious,  and  economical  he  saves  eight  dollars  per  annum, 
and  the  accumulations  of  ten  years  will  enable  him  to  be 
come  the  possessor  of  one-third  of  an  acre  of  land.  Such, 
it  is  stated,  is  the  outlook  for  the  laboring  Chinaman  at 
home.  Contrast  it  with  what  he  beholds  afar  when  he  listens 
to  the  tales  of  his  countrymen  from  California  or  Oregon, 
a  land  in  which  the  offal  cast  into  the  streets  is  better  than 
his  daily  food,  and  in  which,  even  at  the  lowest  rates,  his 
wages  may  be  twenty-fold  what  he  can  hope  for  in  China. 

The  intensity  of  the  struggle  for  existence  is  shown  by 
the  small  scale  to  which  business  is  subdivided,  and  this 
latter  is  illustrated  by  the  copper  coins  which  constitute  the 
usual  medium  of  exchange,  and  which  form  the  smallest 
currency  in  the  world  ;  silver  being  used  only  for  the  larger 
transactions.  An  undertaking  requiring  one  hundred 
dollars  of  capital  is  frequently  divided  among  numerous 
shareholders.  It  follows  that,  money  having  relatively  so 
great  a  value,  the  slightest  profit  is  acceptable,  and  hence 
in  all  ordinary  transactions  bargains  are  made  upon  a  mar 
gin  that  would  be  deemed  impossible  in  other  countries. 
As  one  writer  has  said,  "  the  Chinese  will  refuse  no  money 
in  selling  if  they  can  be  ever  so  little  gainers."  Of  course, 


70s  THE    CHINESE, 

where  business  is  conducted  upon  so  narrow  a  limit,  slight 
depressions  in  the  general  prosperity  of  any  district  produce 
extreme  suffering,  such  as,  for  instance,  has  often  resulted 
from  famines.  Eleven  years  ago,  in  the  provinces  of  Shan 
tung  and  Chih-li,  a  drought  destroyed  the  crops,  and  as 
soon  as  the  reserve  of  food  was  consumed  the  people  re 
sorted  to  chaff,  the  bark  of  trees,  turnip  leaves,  etc.,  and 
were  finally  reduced  to  devour  the  half-decayed  sorghum 
stalks  of  which  the  roofs  of  their  rude  buildings  were  com 
posed.  It  was  this  famine  which  was  so  great  that  in  one 
place  a  shop  was  opened  for  the  sale  of  human  flesh,  and 
many  thousands  of  children  were  sold  into  slavery  in  order 
that  their  parents  might  sustain  life  upon  the  proceeds. 
Aid  was  given  from  the  other  provinces,  and  it  was  said, 
apparently  with  truth,  that  but  for  such  assistance  not  one- 
half  of  the  population  would  have  survived  until  the  ripen 
ing  of  another  harvest. 

Even  under  ordinary  conditions  the  destitution  is  very 
great,  and  beggars  are  brought  to  almost  unimaginable 
depths.  In  some  cases  systematic  relief  is  afforded  ;  but  the 
kind  and  character  of  this  assistance  only  further  shows  the 
necessities  of  the  people.  In  Pekin  there  was  long  since 
established  a  phalanstery,  which  in  Chinese  was  termed 
"  the  House  of  Hen's  Feathers."  This  was  a  large  building, 
upon  the  floor  of  which  was  a  thick  layer  of  feathers,  over 
which  was  spread  one  immense  coverlet,  provided  with  in 
numerable  holes,  each  large  enough  for  a  human  head  to 
pass  through.  The  lodgers — men,  women  and  children — 
buried  themselves  indiscriminately  in  this  mass  of  feathers, 
each  thrusting  a  head  through  one  of  the  holes,  and  each 
paying  the  value  of  a  tenth  of  a  cent  for  a  night  in  this  dor 
mitory.  In  the  morning  the  noise  of  a  tam-tam  afforded  the 
signal  for  lifting  the  coverlet  by  a  pulley  suspended  from  the 
ceiling,  and  for  starting  the  mendicants  each  upon  his  way. 

Such  are  the  conditions  of  life  with  the  working  multi 
tudes  of  China,  a  population  of  which,  from  the  best  data 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  7 1 

available,  may  be  reasonably  calculated  at  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  millions,  confined  within  a  territory  of  twelve  hun 
dred  and  eighty  thousand  square  miles,  or  six  hundred  and 
twenty  to  the  square  mile.  "The  mere  habitations,"  says 
Abbe"  Hue,  one  of  the  most  noted  and  accurate  among 
recent  travellers  in  China,  "  seem  to  cover  the  whole  land  "; 
and  again,  "  often  you  meet  huge  cities  containing  not  less 
than  two  or  three  millions  of  inhabitants  ";  and  again,  "  the 
mind  endeavors  vainly  to  penetrate  the  future  of  a  race  so 
numerous  that  the  land  will  no  longer  hold  it."  The  north 
ern,  western,  and  southern  boundaries  of  this  region  are 
formed  by  the  dependencies  of  the  central  state.  Each  of 
these  tributary  countries  has  a  less  capacity  than  China 
proper  for  sustaining  a  numerous  population,  and  all  have 
already  reached  the  maximum  they  are  able  to  support.  In 
adjoining  regions,  that  is  to  say,  the  countries  to  the  west 
and  south  beyond  the  Himalayas,  the  conditions  are  the 
same.  For  although  the  British  taskmaster  gathers  wheat 
for  export  from  the  ryots  of  India,  the  productive  capacity 
of  the  soil  is  hardly  equal  to  the  needs  of  the  population,  as 
is  evidenced  by  the  famines  of  frequent  occurrence,  in  one 
of  which,  but  a  few  years  ago,  more  than  a  million  of  the 
natives  died  of  starvation.  The  only  outlet,  therefore,  for 
the  population  of  China  is  to  the  westward,  to  Australasia, 
and  to  the  distant  coasts  of  America.  Toward  these,  when 
existing  obstructions  to  Chinese  immigration  are  overcome, 
the  population  of  China  must  as  naturally  flow  as  the  waters 
of  pent-up  rivers  flow  to  adjacent  lowlands  when  the  levees 
are  broken  down.  Thus  the  prospect  of  the  near  future  (for 
fifty  or  a  hundred  years  are  but  a  brief  space  in  the  life  of 
nations)  is  that  the  outflow  of  this  great  people,  with  its  in 
grained  characteristics  and  its  hoary  institutions,  will  sweep 
down  upon  the  slightly  settled  western  portion  of  this  con 
tinent,  especially  upon  that  richest  part  of  the  Pacific  slope 
where  the  presence  of  the  Asiatics  has  already  produced 
mischief  and  discontent. 


72  THE   CHINESE, 


XIV 


ORIGIN    OF    MODERN    RELATIONS    BETWEEN    THE    CAUCASIAN 
AND    THE    CHINESE. 

BUT  before  proceeding  to  a  consideration  of  Chinese 
immigration,  as  it  affects  and  is  likely  to  affect  the  interests 
of  our  own  country,  it  may  throw  much  light  upon  our  rela 
tions  with  China  if  we  consider  how  those  relations  began, 
and  how  they  have  been  evolved  to  their  present  degree  of 
intricacy  and  importance.  We  shall  find  that  our  course 
has  been  tributary  to  European  interests,  detrimental  to  our 
own,  and  counter,  in  many  instances,  to  the  plain  dictates 
of  international  justice. 

In  this  connection  we  may  review  in  brief  the  course  pur 
sued  toward  China  by  the  Western  Powers  during  the  past 
three-fourths  of  a  century.  It  has  been  a  record  of  iniquity; 
it  is  unjustified  and  unjustifiable  upon  any  principle  of 
Christian  ethics.  In  it  lay  the  germs  of  colossal  dangers 
with  which  our  own  country  is  now  confronted,  for  without 
it  there  would  have  been  no  material  breaking  down  of  the 
twin  principles  of  Chinese  policy — the  exclusion  of  foreign 
ers  and  the  retention  of  her  people  within  her  own 
borders. 

The  origin  of  the  Chinese  question  of  to-day  lay  in  the 
action  of  Great  Britain  in  forcing  the  opium  traffic  upon 
China,  and  this  in  its  turn  arose  from  the  unholy  conquest 
of  India  by  the  same  power.  After  the  superficial  spoils — 
the  gold  and  diamonds  and  varied  wealth  of  the  Indian 
treasuries — had  been  absorbed,  there  remained  the  serious 
question  of  supporting  an  alien  government  upon  resources 
drawn  from  an  already  overburdened  and  impoverished 
people.  This  was  solved  by  the  merciless  faculty  of  organ 
ization  inherent  in  the  Anglo-Saxon.  The  people  of  Hm- 
dostan  comprised  two  classes,  the  one  the  ryots,  or  culti 
vators  of  the  soil,  who  occupied  their  farms  or  holdings 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  73 

theoretically  as  tenants  at  will  from  the  government,  but 
in  fact  by  prescription  amounting  almost  to  freehold  title 
so  long  as  the  taxes  were  duly  paid  ;  the  other,  the  zemin 
dars  or  local  magistrates,  who  were  the  agents  by  and 
through  whom  the  taxes  were  collected.  The  British  sys 
tem  ignored  the  former,  and  dealt  with  the  latter  as  the 
actual  owners  of  the  soil,  and  thus  accomplished  the  double 
object  of  crushing  the  masses  into  helplessness  and  of 
luring  the  local  native  officials  into  accord  with  the  foreign 
administration.  But  although  the  taxes  became  by  this 
method  certain  and  easy  of  collection,  they  failed  to  supply 
the  necessities  of  the  state,  which  comprised  not  only  the 
support  of  a  foreign  military  and  civil  establishment,  but  the 
contribution  to  Great  Britain  of  a  large  annual  return.  As 
the  ordinary  produce  of  the  soil  could  not  yield  the  requi 
site  amount,  a  subject  for  special  and  extended  revenue 
was  sought.  This  was  found  in  the  inspissated  juice  of  the 
white  poppy  of  Bengal,  a  product  worth,  weight  for  weight, 
more  than  one-third  the  value  of  silver  in  the  markets  of  the 
world,  and  the  possible  production  of  which  was  limited 
only  by  the  limits  of  land  and  labor.  By  means  of  forced 
contracts  the  ryots  were  compelled  to  cultivate  the  opium 
plant  and  to  sell  it  to  the  administration  at  prices  fixed  by 
the  latter.  This  made  the  ryot  practically  a  slave,  and 
placed  a  monopoly  of  the  drug  in  the  hands  of  the  East 
India  Company,  and,  after  its  dissolution,  in  the  hands  of 
the  British  Government  direct.  In  one  province  where  this 
was  effectually  resisted  the  price  was  maintained  by  internal 
customs-duties  which  taxed  the  article  heavily  as  it  passed 
to  other  parts  of  the  country.  It  needed  only  an  open  mar 
ket  to  secure  from  this  source  a  public  income  of  many 
millions  beyond  what  could  otherwise  have  been  drained 
from  the  people  of  India.  This  market  was  secured  at  first 
by  fraud,  and  later  by  the  sword,  among  the  people  of 
China. 

The  Chinese,  to  a  notable  degree,  are  prone  to  sensuous 


74  THE   CHINESE, 

enjoyment,  and  had  long  found  in  opium  a  source  of  pleasure 
at  little  pecuniary  cost,  although  at  a  fearful  expense  of 
health.  But  so  severe  were  the  repressive  means  of  the 
Chinese  Government  that  the  habit  was  held  in  check  to 
an  extent  never  elsewhere  accomplished  with  any  form  of 
dissipation.  The  importation  of  the  drug  was  forbidden 
under  penalty  of  death.  Through  the  vigilance  of  the 
officials  the  quantity  introduced  by  smuggling  was  extremely 
limited,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy  for  opium-growing 
purposes  was  restricted  to  one  or  two  small  localities. 
This  immunity  from  the  scourge  continued  until  the  British 
possession  of  the  Carnatic,  when,  it  being  apparent  that 
opium  would  be  the  one  great  staple  of  export,  the  finan 
cial  condition  of  these  dependencies  rendered  its  sale  abroad 
a  matter  of  vital  import  to  the  maintenance  of  British 
power. 

The  opium  trade  began  with  an  armed  vessel  sent  out  by 
the  goverment  of  Bengal.  It  was  continued  by  private 
armed  cruisers,  fitted  out  to  resist  the  Chinese  Government 
vessels  in  their  attempts  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  the 
drug,  and  which  acted  as  receiving  and  distributing  ships  at 
convenient  places  along  the  coasts.  In  proportion  as  the 
illicit  trade  increased  the  Chinese  Government  redoubled 
its  efforts  to  prevent  it.  Those  who  purchased  and  those 
who  smoked  opium  were  devoted  to  a  hundred  strokes  of 
the  bamboo,  and  to  wear  the  cangue  or  portable  pillory,  a 
large  square  wooden  frame  resting  on  the  shoulders,  with  a 
central  opening  for  the  head — for  two  months.  If  they 
refused  to  reveal  the  vender,  their  punishment  was  doubled 
— with  the  addition  of  three  years  of  penal  banishment. 
This  was  for  ordinary  offenders;  like  offences  by  mandarins 
met  with  greater  punishment.  >  In  spite  of  all,  the  traffic 
increased  until  in  the  first  third  of  the  present  century 
every  port  from  Canton  to  Tartary  had  been  supplied  with 
clandestine  opium.  Within  gun-shot  of  the  Chinese  port  of 
Canton  half  a-dozen  vessels,  under  foreign  flags,  and  pro- 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  75 

tected  by  foreign  governments,  lay  continuously  at  anchor, 
laden  with  opium.  Smaller  vessels — tenders  to  these 
receiving  ships — sailed  up  and  down  the  river,  manned  with 
armed  men,  and  supplied  the  article  in  defiance  of  all  the 
authorities.  It  was  in  this  manner  that  England  opened 
the  market  for  the  Indian  product.  And  a  peaceful  nation, 
striving  to  shield  its  people  from  one  of  the  greatest  scourges 
that  ever  afflicted  humanity,  was  in  a  few  years  assailed  by 
armed  squadrons,  its  fortified  cities  stormed,  its  people 
slaughtered,  and  its  government  brought,  against  its  will, 
into  direct  relations  with  other  countries  and  compelled  to 
witness  the  debasement  of  millions  of  its  people  by  the  use 
of  a  drug  that  destroys  physical  and  mental  health,  which 
renders  manhood  miserable,  and  old  age  degraded.  The 
import  of  opium  into  China  amounts  to  upwards  of  seventy 
millions  of  dollars  annually,  so  that  seventy-five  per  cent, 
of  all  the  exports  of  tea  and  silk  are  paid  for  by  the  infernal 
drug  ;  and  the  quantity  consumed,  including  the  native 
growth,  is  more  than  twenty-one  million  pounds,  or  ten 
thousand  five  hundred  tons.  The  extent  to  which  the  con 
sumption  of  this  drug  has  debased  the  energies  of  the 
people  and  induced  profligacy  and  poverty,  cannot  be 
measured.  Nor  does  the  mischief  end  with  this,  for,  the 
industrial  capacity  of  the  people  being  diminished,  the  pro 
perty  and  products  subject  to  taxation  are  lessened,  the 
difficulty  of  collecting  the  revenue  is  enhanced,  and  the 
administration  of  the  government  is  retarded.  Nor  is  this 
all  ;  the  markets  of  China  being  thus  forcibly  opened  to 
the  foreign  drug,  it  was  found  useless  to  attempt  to  restrain 
its  home  production.  The  extended  cultivation  of  the 
poppy,  in  a  country  where  all  the  arable  land  is  tilled, 
necessarily  displaced  the  production  of  cereals  to  a  pro 
portionate  degree  and  the  result  has  been,  in  some  of  the 
provinces,  a  material  diminution  of  the  food  supply. 

This  perversion  of  the  cultivated  lands  of  a  densely  pop 
ulated   country   is    productive  of  evil   even   beyond    that 


76  THE   CHINESE, 

previously  inflicted  by  the  importation  of  the  drug.  For 
example,  in  the  remote  province  of  Kwei-chow,  one  of  the 
most  thinly  populated  in  China,  the  opium  poppy  has,  dur 
ing  nearly  thirty  years,  been  cultivated  to  the  diminution,  to 
a  proportionate  degree,  of  the  wheat,  barley  and  similar 
food  crops,  and  with  corresponding  diminution  in  the  food 
resources  of  the  people.  The  morale  of  the  population 
has  been  impaired,  for  the  major  portion  of  the  opium 
product  has  been  consumed  at  home.  The  increased  in 
dolence,  carelessness,  and  poverty  invited  pestilence  and 
famine,  and  a  province  having  formerly  six  millions  of 
people  has  been  reduced  to  one  million  ;  the  population  of 
one  town  was  diminished  from  fifty  thousand,  to  six  families 
only,  of  its  original  inhabitants. 

Similar  results  have  followed  in  even  the  wealthiest 
provinces.  In  that  of  Sze-Chuen  the  price  of  rice  has 
doubled,  the  wheat,  barley  and  other  food  crops  have  been 
to  a  great  extent  displaced  by  the  poppy,  and  the  cost  of 
living  to  the  laborer  has  thus  been  practically  doubled, 
which  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  his  wages  have 
been  reduced  one-half.  This  region,  from  its  fertility  and 
accumulated  wealth,  has  organized  the  production  of  native 
opium  to  a  high  degree,  and  not  less  than  the  value  of  three 
millions  of  taels  or  about  four  and  one-half  millions  of  dol 
lars—equivalent  in  purchasing  power  to  ten  times  that 
amount  in  the  United  States — of  the  native  product  is 
exported  annually  to  other  parts  of  the  country.  The 
extent  to  which  the  scourge  has  been  fastened  upon  the 
vitals  of  China  is  shown  not  only  by  the  utter  nullity  of  all 
attempts  of  the  government  to  suppress  the  native  produc 
tion  of  opium — it  was  twice  prohibited  by  imperial  procla 
mation  in  one  period  of  five  years,  once  in  1865  and  again 
in  1869,  but  each  edict  proved  a  brutum  fulmen  only — but 
by  the  further  fact  that  twenty  years  ago  it  had  brought  the 
import  from  India  to  an  almost  stationary  figure.  The 
import  of  foreign  opium  rose  from  four  thousand  chests  in 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  77 

1799  to  twelve  thousand  in  1829,  to  forty-five  thousand  in 
1849,  to  nearly  seventy-five  thousand  in  1859,  and  to  nearly 
seventy-seven  thousand  nine  years  later.  The  ratio  of 
increase  in  consumption  of  the  drug  is  indicated  by  the 
rate  of  increase  in  importation  from  1799  to  1859.  While 
the  importation  since  that  time  has  been  relatively  light,  the 
increase  in  consumption  has  continued,  and  this  increase 
has  been  met  by  the  native  drug.  The  growth  of  opium, 
says  the  authority  from  which  these  data  are  taken,  "  has 
gradually  spread  into  every  province  of  China."  Its  cul 
tivation  "  is  very  profitable  and  consequently  increasing 
everywhere";  "although  the  consumption  in  China  in 
creases  year  by  year,  yet  year  by  year  does  the  cultivation 
of  the  poppy  also  increase";  "at  least  one-half  of  the 
opium  produced  in  the  province  of  Yun-nan  is  consumed 
on  the  spot,  while  the  other  half  is  exported  to  the  adjacent 
provinces  ";  "of  the  Sze-Chuen  opium  about  twenty-five  per 
cent,  is  kept  for  local  consumption,  forty  per  cent,  goes  to 
the  northern  provinces,  and  thirty-five  per  cent,  is  disposed 
of  in  the  provinces  watered  by  the  Yang-tse  ";  "the 
cultivation  of  the  poppy  is  daily  increasing  ";  "  for  centuries 
it  has  been  the  proud  boast  of  Sze-Chuen  that  it  produced 
in  itself  most  of  the  products  required  for  human  use, 
whereas  at  the  present  day,  owing  to  the  conversion  of  the 
hillside  and  valley  paddy  (rice)  grounds  to  poppy  cultiva 
tion,  this  province  imports  rice  at  the  incredible  wholesale 
price  of  five  dollars  per  picul"  (a  picul  is  133  pounds 
avoirdupois).  "  In  the  northern  provinces  it  is  calculated 
that  at  least  one  member  of  every  family  smokes  opium." 
These  quotations  are  from  British  Consular  Reports.  A 
like  authority  states  the  production  of  native  opium  in  1874 
to  have  been  twice  that  of  the  preceding  year.  In  four 
years'  time  the  great  plain  of  Sanpo,  where  scarcely  a  poppy 
raised  its  head,  became  a  "  vast  and  ever-extending  opium 
farm."  The  cultivation  has  reached  even  into  Western 
China,  and  is  extending  throughout  the  whole  of  Man- 


7$  THE    CHINESE, 

chooria.  Such  is  the  legacy  of  deviltry  and  misfortune 
forced  upon  China  at  the  cannon's  mouth  in  the  name  of 
"  Christian  civilization,"  and  "  British  trade." 

The  motive  which  induced  Great  Britain  to  force  the 
opium  trade  upon  China  still  exists  ;  for  the  Indian  Govern 
ment  derives  at  this  present  time  each  year  a  profit  of  eight 
million  pounds  sterling,  or  forty  millions  of  dollars,  from  its 
opium  monopoly,  and  without  this  the  British  power  from 
Cape  Comorin  to  Lahore  would  in  twenty  years  vanish  into 
air.  It  is  not  without  interest,  in  this  connection,  that  we 
trace  the  cry  of  protection  to  American  commerce  in  the 
Chinese  seas  in  part  to  the  participation  of  Americans  in 
this  iniquitous  traffic.  It  was  certified  by  the  United  States 
Legation  at  Canton  in  1858,  that  "  the  most  active  opium 
business  in  any  single  ship  was  carried  on  in  a  steamer 
built  in  New  York,  and  floating  the  American  flag."  At 
that  time,  upwards  of  one-quarter  of  the  opium  was  carried 
in  American  vessels.  Had  there  been  no  opium  war 
between  Great  Britain  and  China  and  no  attempt  on  the 
part  of  our  people  to  share  in  the  advantages  of  the  trade, 
there  would  have  been  no  Chinese  question  on  the  Pacific 
coast  of  the  United  States  ;  for  in  the  political  as  in  the 
organic  world  foul  seeds  spread  rapidly  their  noisome 
growths  to  distant  places,  and  bear  their  rank  and  bitter 
fruit  under  circumstances  the  least  foreseen. 

With  the  success  of  the  English  in  securing  trade  with 
China  came  the  desire  of  other  countries  to  profit  by  traffic 
with  this  remotest  East.  The  French  soon  joined  with  the 
British.  The  Dutch,  who,  under  severe  restrictions,  had  long 
traded  with  China,  were  quick  to  assert  their  claims.  Then 
came  Germans  and  Americans,  and  all  together  united  to 
force  upon  China  a  policy  repugnant  to  her  national  ideas, 
and  contrary  to  her  traditional  usages  in  commerce  and 
industries.  In  all  these  aggressions  the  interests  of  the 
United  States  were  of  the  slightest  account,  and  the  profits 
from  our  ill-advised  interference  have  been  less  than  the 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  79 

price  of  the  birthright  of  Esau  ;  for  in  return  for  our  little 
gains  we  have  had  cast  upon  us  one  of  the  weightiest 
problems  known  to  historic  times.  We  can  only  appreciate 
the  relations  with  China  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the 
western  powers,  by  an  analysis  of  their  demands  urged  by 
diplomacy,  and  enforced  by  cannon-shot. 

In  doing  this,  we  should  remember  that  China  was  a  na 
tionality  independent  and  established  ;  one  that  dated  from 
the  remotest  ages ;  one  possessed  of  a  distinctive  civilization; 
and  one  which  had  for  its  leading  political  idea  non-inter 
vention  in  the  affairs  of  the  nations  whose  people  came 
from  the  distant  seas  :  and  one  that  had  demonstrated  for 
itself  the  wisdom  of  this  policy  by  a  normal  and  colossal 
growth.  Her  institutions  were  the  outgrowth  of  five  thou 
sand  years  of  slow  but  permanent  progress  ;  her  social  cus 
toms  had  been  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation 
for  fifty  centuries.  These  usages  and  customs  were  hallowed 
by  antiquity  and  were  the  object  of  idolatrous  reverence  on 
the  part  of  the  entire  people.  Yet  for  their  own  benefit, 
and  not  for  hers,  the  distant  nations  have  temporarily  suc 
ceeded  in  subjecting  this  great  country  to  indignities  that 
they  would  not  have  dared  to  propose  to  each  other,  and 
to  which  not  one  of  them  would  have  submitted  for  an 
hour. 

Thus,  by  force  of  arms,  China  was  compelled  to  permit 
a  traffic  which,  in  the  course  of  twenty-five  years,  reduced 
the  normal  increase  of  her  population  from  three  per  cent, 
annually  to  one  per  cent.  But  this  was  but  the  entering 
wedge  to  foreign  demands. 

The  same  era  that  initiated  British  power  in  India,  and 
the  evil  and  rapid  development  of  her  East  Indian  policy, 
witnessed  also  the  invention  of  the  labor-saving  machinery 
which,  especially  in  textiles,  in  less  than  half  a  century  made 
Britain  the  leading  manufacturing  country  in  the  world. 
But  the  rapid  and  cheap  production  of  goods  required- 
a  market  for  them  if  the  profits  of  English  industries  were 


8o  THE  CHINESE. 

to  be  maintained.  The  same  ideas  prevailed,  and  the  same 
principles  were  followed  in  this  regard  as  with  the  opium 
trade.  The  whole  public  opinion  of  Great  Britain  became 
purulent  with  the  demands  of  "  British  trade."  Not  con 
tent  with  underselling  in  their  own  bazaars  the  products  of 
the  simple  Hindoo  handicrafts,  British  manufacturers  and 
merchants  turned  longing  eyes  upon  China,  and  the  most 
exuberant  expectations  were  indulged  as  to  the  golden 
streams  which  should  flow  into  British  coffers  when  her 
sealed  territories  should  be  "  opened  to  the  advantages 
of  civilization  and  the  blessings  of  religion,"  the  well-known 
synonyms  of  t4  British  interests."  To  continued  aggressions 
China  opposed  a  stolid  patience  and  careful  diplomacy 
which  not  infrequently  foiled  for  a  time  the  direct  brutality 
of  the  foreigners.  It  was  nevertheless  impossible,  in  view  of 
the  unrelaxing  pressure  of  the  latter,  that  hostilities  should 
long  be  avoided,  and  the  British  assault  on  Canton,  in  1848, 
was  followed  by  the  cession  of  Hong  Kong  and  by  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  four  open  ports.  This  success  formed  the 
basis  of  new  demands,  and  Great  Britain  waited  only  until 
a  pretext  could  be  manufactured  for  further  attack. 

This  came  in  1857,  at  a  period  when  China  was  suffering 
from  internal  misfortunes  which  weakened  her  in  no  slight 
degree.  At  that  time  the  Tae-ping  rebellion,  to  which  I 
shall  recur  in  speaking  of  the  influence  of  the  foreigners 
upon  the  condition  of  China,  was  in  full  blast.  Several  of 
the  provinces  were  in  indescribable  anarchy  and  filled  with 
insurgents.  In  the  great  province  of  Ho-nan  famine  had 
reduced  the  people  to  the  extreme  of  misery.  The  two 
Kiang  provinces  had  been  swept  by  locusts,  the  crops  de 
stroyed,  and  the  people  reduced  to  semi-starvation.  Says  a 
historian  of  the  Tae-ping  revolt,  "  what  with  rebellions, 
inundations,  famines,  and  locusts,  the  country  presented  a 
most  lamentable  appearance  ;  in  many  of  the  provinces  rice 
was  selling  at  five  times  its  usual  price."  It  was  at  this 
time  and  under  these  circumstances  that  "  the  government 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  8r 

of  her  most  Christian  Majesty  "   instituted,  on  a  pretext 
framed  in  naked  mendacity,  the  second  war  with  China. 

In  October,  1856,  a  Chinese  lorcha,  the  "Arrow,"  belong 
ing  to  a  class  of  vessels  often  employed  in  piracy  on  the 
harbors  and  rivers  of  China,  was  found  sailing,  without  a 
shadow  of  right,  under  the  British  flag.  She  was  captured 
by  the  Chinese  officials  in  the  exercise  of  their  lawful  au 
thority.  Immediately  the  British  agents  spread  abroad 
the  falsehood  that  a  British  colonial  vessel  had  been  fired 
upon.  A  British  vice-admiral  was  at  hand  to  administer 
"  castigation."  Canton  was  bombarded  and  captured,  and 
further  concessions  were  exacted  from  China.  It  may  be 
well  to  remark  that  this  iniquity,  to  the  extent  of  our  abil 
ity  was  shared  by  the  United  States.  Commodore  Perry, 
then  in  command  of  the  American  squadron  in  the  Pacific, 
ko-toed  to  the  British  commander,  approved  his  proceedings, 
and  echoed  his  utterances  ;  and  the  American  flag  was 
carried  by  an  American  sailor  side  by  side  with  the  Union 
Jack  through  the  breach  at  the  storming  of  Canton,  al 
though  we  were  at  peace  with  China,  and  our  people  had  no 
possible  excuse  for  meddling  with  the  affair.  During  these 
commotions,  foreign  influence  was  extended  to  favor  the 
rebellion  of  the  Tae-pings.  At  a  later  date  occurred  the 
capture  of  Pekin  by  the  French  and  English  forces,  the 
looting  of  the  imperial  palace,  and  the  long  succession  of 
outrages  alien  to  the  laws  of  civilized  warfare  which  char 
acterize  European  military  operations  in  the  East. 


XV. 

IMMEDIATE    RESULTS    OF    INTERFERENCE    WITH    AFFAIRS    OF 
CHINA. —  BRITISH    TRADE    AND    TAE-PING    REVOLT. 

THE  immediate  effects  of  the  invasion  of  the  territory 
and  domestic  tranquillity  of  China  were  many  and  great, 
and  extended  far  beyond  the  limits  of  commercial  and  in- 


82  THE    CHINESE, 

dustrial  affairs.  They  disturbed  not  merely  the  material 
interests  of  the  people,  and  the  authority  of  the  state  over 
its  subjects,  but  also  the  equilibrum  in  faith  and  custom 
which  for  many  ages  had  contributed  in  an  exalted  degree 
to  the  internal  peace  of  the  empire. 

Where  good  intent  and  evil  works  are  blended  the  mixed 
account  commonly  shows  a  balance-sheet  in  favor  of  the 
Prince  of  Darkness,  especially  if  the  agencies  of  the  one 
depend  upon  the  energy  shown  in  the  other.  It  has  been 
the  fault  and  misfortune  of  the  British  missionary  that 
everywhere  he  has  been  the  precursor  or  practically  the 
associate  of  the  British  soldier  and  the  British  factor  ;  too 
often  have  orisons  in  Anglo-Saxon  speech  been  preceded 
by  the  rattle  of  Anglo-Saxon  drums,  advancing  in  the  in 
terests  of  "  British  trade."  Hence  it  is  that  I  have  here 
to  relate — though  holding  as  I  do  most  deep  and  reverent 
regard  for  those  who  in  any  part  of  the  world  spread  the 
glad  tidings  of  the  Redeemer — how  it  was  that  the  Tae- 
ping  Revolt,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  was  an  immediate  result  of  the  invasion  from 
the  west.  For  any  consideration  of  the  influence  of  the 
Caucasian  upon  the  Chinese  would  be  futile  without  a 
reference  to  this,  a  rebellion  which  involved  tens  of  millions 
of  people  in  its  progress  and  devastated  China  for  twenty 
years.  In  view  of  its  character  and  results  one  can  readily 
understand  why  the  government  of  China  has  sometimes 
looked  askance  at  the  well-meant  efforts  of  the  evangelist 
as  hardly  less  dangerous  than  the  aggressiveness  of  the 
trafficker  and  the  man-of-war.  The  causes  of  that  rebellion 
and  the  means  by  which  it  was  suppressed,  together  cost 
millions  of  lives,  prejudiced  the  Chinese  people  and  the 
Chinese  government  against  the  creeds  of  Europe,  and  re 
tarded  the  successful  introduction  of  Christianity  into  China 
perhaps  for  many  ages.  There  is  a  genesis  of  evil  which 
seems  to  contaminate  even  things  good  in  themselves  when 
associated  with  it  in  its  successive  and  evolving  conditions; 


AND    THE  CHINESE   QUESTION,  #3 

and  it  is  instructive  to  note  how  the  well-meant  efforts  of 
ardent  and  honest  men  may  result  in  all  that  they  abhor 
when  such  efforts  are  mingled  with,  and  dependent  upon, 
a  political  policy  in  itself  iniquitous.  The  British  mission 
ary  worked,  not  under  the  precepts  of  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
but  under  the  protecting  inspiration  of  British  guns,  and 
his  labors,  perverted  and  misunderstood,  carried  with  them 
an  anathema  maranatha  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the 
people  of  China.  The  manner  of  it  was  this  : 

About  fifty  years  ago  the  Scriptures  were  translated  into 
the 'Chinese  language  by  one  Morrison,  whose  work,  though 
laboriously  and  conscientiously  performed,  was  so  erroneous 
and  incomplete  that  it  was  soon  laid  aside.  But  in  the 
interval  a  copy  came  into  the  hands  of  a  comparatively 
illiterate  but  ambitious  native  convert,  Leang-Afah,  who 
framed  from  its  texts,  and  from  his  own  clouded  ideas  of 
their  meaning,  a  series  of  tracts  which  he  distributed  in  the 
streets  of  Canton.  At  that  time  in  one  of  the  interior  vil 
lages  of  China  dwelt  a  youth,  Hung-Siu-Tsuen,  whom 
poverty  hindered  from  achieving  success  in  the  annual 
literary  examinations,  and  year  after  year  he  failed  to 
secure  the  coveted  degree.  In  one  of  his  visits  to  Canton 
he  secured  the  tracts  of  Leang-Afah,  carelessly  read  them, 
laid  them  aside  when  he  reached  home,  and  for  the  time 
forgot  them.  He  became  partially  insane  ;  he  wandered 
crazily  about  the  village  ;  at  length  in  a  fever  that  confined 
him  to  his  couch  his  disordered  imagination  called  up 
visions  before  him  !  In  his  convalescence  he  re-read  the 
tracts  of  Leang-Afah  and  convinced  himself  that  in  them 
he  found  a  confirmation  of  his  dreams.  He  went  to  another 
province  and  made  proselytes.  They  gathered  peacefully 
in  their  little  convocations  until  their  numbers  increased 
and  they  then  became  iconoclasts,  not  content  with  break 
ing  their  own  idols  but  also  incontinently  destroying  those 
in  the  temples  of  other  people.  As  the  movement  enlarged 
the  half-insane  youth  grew  to  the  full  stature  of  a  leader  of 


84  THE   CHINESE, 

men.  He  studied  the  ancient  military  systems  and  organ 
ized  his  forces  according  to  the  rules  laid  down  by  the 
early  generals  of  the  empire,  or  as  the  historians  have  it,  he 
"  followed  closely  the  Sze-ma  military  system  inaugurated 
by  the  dynasty  of  Chow."  The  rebellion  began  in  the 
year  1850,  and  the  whole  work  of  organizing  the  armies 
down  to  the  minutest  detail  had  been  completed  within  the 
preceding  twelve  months — no  inconsiderable  evidence  of 
the  executive  and  organizing  ability  of  the  Chinese. 

Thus  prepared,  this  warlike  apostle  raised  the  war-cry  of 
the  expulsion  of  the  Tartars  and  made  himself  the  champion 
of  the  Chinese  against  the  Mongol  dynasty.  He  appoint 
ed  viceroys  to  rule  in  different  parts  of  the  country  ;  de 
lirious  with  the  apparent  fulfilment  of  his  early  visions,  he 
called  himself  the  elder  brother  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  made 
the  volume  of  Leang-Afah  the  bible  of  the  new  crusade. 
He  stormed  cities  and  routed  armies  and  put  thousands  of 
captives  to  death.  Until  the  capture  of  Nankin  one-fourth 
of  his  forces  were  women,  who  fought  like  Amazons  in  the 
fervor  of  religious  faith,  and  who,  after  the  reorganization 
of  the  rebel  armies,  delved  as  laborers  in  fosse  and 
ditch. 

Two  centuries  of  substantial  peace  had  made  war  unfa 
miliar  to  the  masses  of  China;  and  had  caused  the  military 
organization  of  the  empire  to  measurably  decay.  In  this 
juncture  the  government  accepted  the  aid  of  foreign  offi 
cers,  and  one  Ward,  an  American  who  had  been  a  filibuster 
in  Nicaragua,  became  prominent  in  the  imperial  forces. 
Following  their  characteristic  policy,  the  western  powers  fo 
mented  the  rebellion,  and  Ward  became  a  special  object  of 
aversion  to  the  Europeans,  who  offered  a  reward  for  his 
capture  dead  or  alive.  The  emperor,  finding  himself 
hard  pressed,  chose  the  least  of  two  evils.  He  offered  con 
cessions  to  the  English  and  French  if  they  would  reverse 
their  policy  toward  the  rebels  and  assist  in  repulsing  the 
Tae-pings.  The  offer  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  accepted 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  85 

"  in  the  interests  of  foreign  trade  with  China'';  and  the 
public  opinion  of  the  west,  which  had  hailed  the  rebellion  as 
the  advent  of  a  Christian  future  for  China,  veered  to  the 
opposite  extreme,  and,  with  equal  recklessness,  called  for  its 
suppression  as  due  to  the-cause  of  civilization.  Ward  was 
given  an  English  commission,  and  then,  to  quote  from  an 
English  authority,  "  came  scenes  of  bloodshed  that  appalled 
the  civilized  world."  Ward  was  killed  by  a  Tae-ping  bullet, 
in  1862,  long  before  the  end  of  the  war  in  which  he  played 
so  eminent  a  part  ;  the  outlawed  New  York  rough  was  dei 
fied  by  order  of  the  emperor  and  has  a  place  among  the 
conventional  gods  of  China.  The  rebellion — the  colossal 
movement  which  sprang  from  an  English  germ — was  crushed 
at  last  by  the  military  skill  of  an  errant  English  adventurer, 
known  ever  after  to  fame  as  Chinese  Gordon,  who  was  ap 
plauded  for  it  by  English-speaking  peoples  everywhere. 
But  for  the  English  there  would  have  been  no  rebellion  ; 
but  for  the  English  it  would  not  have  been  suppressed  ;  be 
tween  the  seed  and  the  threshing  was  the  slaughter  of 
many  myriads  of  Chinese,  and  all,  if  the  plain  truth  be  told, 
sacrificed  to  that  spirit  of  forcible  intermeddling  and  grasp 
ing  greed  which  the  English  have  shown  under  every  cli 
mate  and  in  every  land. 

It  is  not  without  reason  that  I  have  dwelt  upon  this,  the 
greatest  of  the  many  rebellions  which  China  has  known 
during  her  many  centuries.  Of  the  moral  and  ethical  prin 
ciples  involved  I  have  already  spoken.  And  it  is  well  to  note 
that  under  the  apparently  calm  and  placid  character  of  this 
great  people  may  lie  the  force  and  the  fierceness  of  volcanic 
fires. 

The  British  manufacturer,  merchant,  and  missionary  cried 
out  for  the  forcible  opening  of  the  ports  of  China  ;  the 
American  said,  Amen.  The  guns  of  British  war-vessels 
broke  down  the  barriers,  and  cannon  on  American  decks 
made  puny  echo  of  the  sound.  The  things  that  I  have 
mentioned  came  of  it,  and  others  still. 


86  THE    CHINESE. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  year  1847  a  European  ship  trad 
ing  with   Lima  lay  at  Canton.      Her  master,   recalling  the 
broad  savannas  of  South  America  as  he  gazed  on  the  living, 
moving  masses  that  thronged  the  wharves,  remarked  that 
he  wished  he  had  a  thousand  of  them  in  Peru.      The  pass 
ing  thought  took  shape  in  practical  resolve,  and  in  a  few 
days  three  hundred  coolies,  lured  by  false  promises  that  he 
would  take  them  to  Java,  were  stowed  aboard   the  vessel. 
After  more  than  three  months'  sailing,  each  day  of  which 
saw  one  or  more  dead  Chinamen  cast  into  the  sea,  he  land 
ed   one  hundred  and  seventy  of  them  at  a  Peruvian  port. 
Widely  diffused  knowledge  of  the  profits  of  the  new  slave 
trade  followed  fast.      Cuba   arid   Surinam   and    Australia 
rivalled  Peru   in  cupidity  for  the    cheap  laborers,  and  for 
nearly  a  generation  the  horrors  of  the  barracoons  of  Daho 
mey  were  rivalled  by  those  of  the  coolie  trade.     The  story  of 
the  three  hundred   men   kidnapped  from  Canton    spread 
through  the   country,  along  the    sea-coast  and   the    river 
banks,  and  when  no  more  could  be  secured  by  persuasion, 
an  organized  system  of  capture  was  instituted.      Gangs  of 
midnight  prowlers  invaded  the  villages,  and  their  male  and 
female    prisoners   were   sold    wholesale  to  traders  at  the 
ports ;  armed  lorchas  crept  along   the  coasts  and  up  and 
down  the  rivers,  and  the  laborers  in  the  fields,  the  children 
in  the  schools,  the  women  about  their  family  avocations, 
were  caught  and  swept  by  thousands  into  the  stifling  holds 
of  vessels  flying  the  flags  of  the  Christian  nations.     "  The 
province  of  Quang-Tung"  says  one  writer,  "was  filled  with 
orphan  children,  and  the  mourning  white  was  seen  in  nearly 
every  household."     In  the  ports  of  Macao,  Hong-Kong, 
Swatow,   Canton,  Amoy,  Whampoa,   Cumsing-woon,    and 
others,  were  ships  waiting  as  receiving  vessels  for  the  gath 
ered  slaves.      In  some  portions  of  the  seaboard  country 
local  civil  wars  sprang  up  in  consequence  of  the  demand, 
and  rival  clans  took  arms,  each  in   turn  selling  its  captives 
to  the  harbor  traders.     The  magnitude  of  the  traffic  may  be 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  87 

seen  from  the  fact  that  ninety  thousand  and  seven  hundred 
were  sold  at  Macao  for  export  to  Cuba  alone,  in  the  two 
years  of  1864  and  1865.  And  the  market  price  of  each  of 
these  was  ten  dollars  at  wholesale. 

The  coolies  hauled  from  the  barracoons  were  compelled 
to  go  through  the  farce  of  signing  a  contract  to  labor  for 
twenty  years.  On  their  arrival  at  the  place  of  destination 
these  contracts,  each  designating  a  number  of  surviving 
Chinamen,  were  put  up  at  auction  and  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder,  who  forthwith  became  the  possessor  of  the  coolies 
named  therein,  for  a  portion  of  the  stated  period.  The 
profits  were  enormous,  for  the  right  to  eight  years  of  a  ser 
vice  under  such  a  contract  often  sold  for  from  three  hundred 
and  fifty  to  six  hundred  dollars  at  the  place  where  the 
coolies  were  landed.  It  was  not  until  this  infamy  had  en 
dured  for  fifteen  years  that  our  own  government  interfered 
by  statute  to  prevent  our  citizens  from  engaging  in  the 
nefarious  work. 


XVI. 

WANTON  AGGRESSIONS  OF  FOREIGNERS  UPON  THE  GOVERN 
MENT  AND  PEOPLE  OF  CHINA. — OUR  NATIONAL  SHARE  IN 
THE  INIQUITY. 

IT  appears,  therefore,  that  the  coming  of  Occidental 
enterprise  to  the  ports  of  China  has  hardly  been  an  un 
mixed  blessing  to  her  people  ;  that  even  the  well-meant 
and  laudable  devotion  of  the  missionary  has  inured  to  her 
harm,  and  that  in  political  peace,  and  industrial  prosperity, 
and  social  morality,  she  has  received  injuries  many  and 
bitter  and  enduring  consequent  upon  the  advent  of  the 
Caucasian  within  her  gates.  There  is  even  ample  room 
for  the  hypothesis  that  China  would  have  been  better  off- 
more  tranquil,  more  prosperous,  more  happy  even — if  we 
may  use  the  term,  if  she  had  been  able  to  enforce  her  na- 


88  T2IK   CHINESE, 

tional  policy  and  to  keep  the  foreigner  from  her  territory. 
Let  us  see  whether  there  is  anything  in  the  present  rela 
tions  with  her  of  the  western  powers  by  which  the  strong 
probabilities  of  this  hypothesis  may  be  lessened. 

The  war  of  1847  gave^  Hong-Kong  to  the  British  and 
made  Canton  an  open  port.  During  the  succeeding  fifteen 
years  the  number  of  the  latter  was  increased  to  fourteen, 
along  a  coast  line  of  eight  hundred  miles.  The  growth  of 
oppression  in  other  respects  kept  pace  with  that  in  the  for 
cible  opening  of  Chinese  harbors  to  foreign  trade — one  of 
these  lay  in  the  doctrine  of  exterritoriality,  which  exempts 
foreigners  from  the  operation  of  Chinese  laws,  and  which 
has  been,  and  still  is,  insisted  upon  and  enforced  by  all  the 
foreign  powers.  Only  a  few  years  ago,  our  representative 
at  Pekin  formally  reasserted  "  the  intention  of  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  to  claim  for  all  its  citizens  entire 
exemption  from  the  operation  of  Chinese  law,"  and  this 
in  criminal  matters  is  still  asserted.  No  Chinese  can 
arraign  any  foreigner  in  a  Chinese  court,  for  any  offence  or 
any  crime.  It  is  not  known  that  any  foreigner  has  ever 
yet  been  executed  for  the  murder  of  a  Chinaman,  except, 
possibly,  at  Hong-Kong  and  Macao.  But  I  doubt  if  even 
in  these  cities  the  murder  of  a  Chinese  has  ever  received 
its  just  deserts.  In  1884  a  British  subject  wantonly  killed 
an  inoffensive  Chinaman  at  Canton.  He  was  tried  by  the 
British  court ;  the  offence  was  toned  down  to  manslaughter 
and  the  criminal  sentenced  to  seven  years'  imprisonment ; 
and  this  appears  to  be  a  fair  sample  of  what  occurs  in  like 
cases  when  the  homicide  is  punished  at  all.  The  practical 
effect  of  such  a  system  is  to  render  the  foreigners  reckless 
and  irresponsible  in  the  extreme,  and  to  engender  the  bit 
terest  hatred  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese  against  the  inter 
lopers  who  outrage  Chinese  rights  on  Chinese  territory, 
and  under  the  very  shadow  of  their  flag. 

It  is  part  of  the  system  of  the  memFers  of  the  Diplo 
matic  Corps  in  China  to  make  common  cause  with  each 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  89 

other,  in  order  that  what  is  demanded  by  one  may,  if  ob 
tained,  be  shared  by  the  others  ;  and  the  "  favored  nation  " 
clause  forms  part  and  parcel  of  every  treaty  between 
China  and  other  countries.  Among  the  demands  made  by 
France  is  that  of  "  the  right  to  place  salaried  consuls  at  any 
point,  either  on  the  coast  or  in  the  interior,  and  that  any 
place  where  such  a  consul  resides  shall  be  open  to  foreign 
trade."  The  same  power  also  demands  that  the  revenue 
derived  from  the  tonnage  dues  of  the  Chinese  ports  shall 
be  handed  over  to  a  "  mixed  commission,  composed  en 
tirely  of  foreigners,  to  be  expended  in  such  a  manner  as 
may  seem  proper  ";  the  avowed  idea  being  that  the  amount 
should  be  devoted  to  the  improvements  of  the  harbors  for 
the  accommodation  of  foreign  vessels.  In  other  words,  it 
is  asked  that  China  shall  not  only  surrender  a  portion  of 
her  legal  revenues,  but  shall  virtually  hand  over  the  admin 
istration  of  her  seaports  to  foreign  powers.  Our  own  coun 
try  claims  that  citizens  of  the  United  States,  importing 
merchandise  into  China,  "  should  have  the  privilege  of 
transshipping  such  merchandise  in  their  own  vessels,  or  of 
those  belonging  to  the  subjects  of  China,  to  any  point  on 
the  Yang-tse  River  and  its  tributaries,  without  limitation 
or  restraint,"  which  amounts  to  a  claim  that  the  Chinese 
Government  shall  give  up  the  control  of  its  inland  com 
merce.  This  demand,  made  many  years  ago,  has  been 
persisted  in  by  our  representatives  in  China,  with  the  more 
explicit  demand  that  foreign  goods  in  native  hands  shall 
not  pay  the  lekin  or  internal  customs  duty  which  is  levied 
on  the  transit  of  goods  from  one  part  of  the  empire  to 
another.  This  is,  in  substance,  not  merely  the  assertion  of 
a  right  to  prevent  the  Chinese  Government  from  collecting 
its  usual  taxes  from  its  own  people,  it  is  a  demand  that 
the  political  condition  of  the  empire  and  of  its  internal  rev 
enue  system  shall  be  changed  for  the  benefit  of  the  foreign 
ers  ;  for  the  lekin  or  local  customs  are  for  the  benefit  of 
the  provinces  in  which  they  are  collected,  and  are  devoted 


90  THE   CHINESE, 

to  the  support  of  the  local  military  and  police,  and  to  other 
local  requirements,  whereas  the  foreign  customs  belong  to 
the  general  government ;  in  other  words,  to  the  administra 
tion  of  the  empire  at  large.  This  claim,  no  doubt  origin 
ally  made  at  the  instigation  of  English  interests,  has  since 
been  taken  up  by  Great  Britain  direct,  and  has  been  the 
source  of  still  unended  assumption  on  the  part  of  the  for 
eigner  and  of  only  partially  successful  evasion  on  the  part  of 
China. 

In  1 88 1  the  Chinese  Government  was  gravely  instructed 
by  the  foreign  legations  at  Pekin  that  foreigners  have  the 
right  to  engage  in  the  coastwise  trade  the  same  as  the  Chi 
nese  themselves  ;  and  that  foreigners  have  the  right  to 
establish  manufactories  in  the  open  ports  and  sell  the  pro 
ducts  in  the  markets  of  China.  The  propriety,  on  inter 
national  principles  and  national  usage,  of  the  first  of  these 
demands  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  not  one  of  the 
nations  that  demand  this  alleged  right  in  China  permits 
anything  of  the  kind  on  its  own  coasts.  In  our  own  coun 
try  no  vessel  can  engage  in  the  coasting  trade  unless  owned 
wholly  by  American  citizens,  and  the  right  is  forfeited  if  the 
owner,  though  he  be  a  native-born  citizen,  resides  perma 
nently  out  of  the  country,  or  if  he  be  a  naturalized  citizen  and 
resides  more  than  one  year  in  the  country  of  his  origin  or 
more  than  two  years  in  any  other  foreign  country.  Unless 
it  be  on  the  ground  that  China  has  no  rights  which  the 
foreigner  is  morally  bound  to  respect,  it  is  difficult  to  enun 
ciate  any  possible  theory  on  which  the  foreign  contention 
can  depend.  But  the  hardihood  of  Caucasian  demands 
does  not  stop  with  this.  It  is  claimed  that  foreign  goods, 
introduced  without  payment  of  duty,  should  be  shipped  in 
the  coastwise  trade  without  payment  of  the  coastwise  duty 
while  every  native  merchant  engaged  in  the  traffic  is  com 
pelled  to  pay  ;  and  this  in  face  of  the  truism  of  interna 
tional  law  that  a  claim  on  the  part  of  a  foreigner  to  share  in 
coastwise  trade  is  forbidden  by  the  comity  of  nations. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  91 


XVII. 

DANGER     TO      CHINA        FROM        INDUSTRIAL       METHODS        OF 
THE    WEST. 

THE  impudence  of  the  claim  that  foreigners  shall  share 
with  the  Chinese  their  own  seaboard  traffic  is  exceeded,  if 
that  be  possible,  by  another  which,  if  allowed,  would  be  pro 
ductive  of  far  more  evil  results.  This  is  the  claim,  aggres 
sively  insisted  upon,  that  foreigners  may  establish  manu 
factories  that,  by  the  use  of  machinery,  would  flood  the 
markets  in  competition  with  the  hand-made  products  of  the 
Chinese  artisan.  This  demand  is  utterly  indefensible  in 
view  of  the  industrial  condition  of  the  country.  Nothing 
is  more  feared  by  Chinese  statesman  than  the  introduction 
of  European  industrial  methods  and  mechanism  ;  its  direct 
results  would  be  a  social  and  industrial  revolution  productive 
of  universal  and  irreparable  harm. 

The  industrial  methods  of  the  western  nations  originated 
in  comparatively  scant  populations,  and  the  needs  and  re 
quirements  of  their  peoples  have  kept  pace  in  development 
with  the  means  of  supplying  them.  With  the  Chinese  it  is 
far  different.  The  introduction  of  improved  methods  of 
manufacture  would  be  with  them,  not  a  normal  evolution 
from  their  own  conditions  of  existence,  but  an  alien  ele 
ment  noxious  to  their  national  and  racial  health  and 
growth.  The  crowded  population  renders  the  severest 
daily  labor  the  bitter  price  of  the  scantiest  daily  bread,  and 
the  slightest  diminution  in  the  demand  for  labor  would 
drive  hundreds  of  thousands  to  starvation  and  other  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  to  revolt.  The  constantly  enlarging 
field  of  American  and  European  enterprise  has  constantly 
absorbed  the  otherwise  surplus  labor  resultant  from  the 
inventions  of  modern  times.  But  nothing  of  the  kind  is 
possible  in  China.  Her  own  regions  and  her  own  indus 
tries  are  no  longer  able  to  absorb  the  overflow  of  labor 


92  THE    CHINESE, 

from  methods  and  processes  many  of  them  the  most 
simple,  laborious,  and  primitive  that  can  be  imagined. 
Labor-saving  machinery  could  not  increase  the  sum  total 
of  her  productiveness,  for  hand  labor  has  made  every 
arable  acre  yield  to  the  utmost  ;  and  has  wrought,  to  the 
last  limit  of  supply,  the  products  of  the  earth  into  merchant 
able  shape.  There  is  so  much  land  to  be  tilled,  so  much  of 
material  to  be  wrought  :  so  much  and  no  more,  for  the 
productive  capacity  of  the  country  has  reached  its  limit  in 
both.  There  are  more  than  enough  of  skilled  and  ready 
hands  for  both.  What  would  it  benefit  China  if,  by  means 
of  machinery,  all  the  work  of  the  empire  were  done  by 
one-fourth  of  the  population.  The  remainder  would  be 
idle,  homeless,  and  starving.  This  is  manifest  to  the  legis 
lators  of  China.  Their  practical  wisdom  on  this  head  is 
beyond  dispute.  But  the  foreigner  hammers  at  the  gates, 
glad  only  if  he  can  fill  his  coffers,  regardless  of  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  children  of  the  soil. 

In  view  of  these  demands  it  is  not  strange  to  find  it  offi 
cially  stated  that  the  foreign  residents  of  China  regard 
force  "  as  the  only  sure  and  speedy  agent  for  opening  up 
China";  that  the  merchants  "  look  upon  the  use  of  force  as 
necessary  to  open  up  new  resources  and  avenues  of  indus 
try  ";  and  that  the  missionaries  favor  it,  because  it  will  ren 
der  their  task  "  less  difficult,"  and  also  for  the  reason  "  that 
the  use  of  arms  to  compel  submission  is  only  adding  an 
auxiliary  force  to  reason,  to  accomplish  the  great  work  of 
the  Master." 

When  we  find  merchant  and  missionary  using  the  argu 
ments  of  the  buccaneer  in  matters  of  general  import,  we  are 
justified  in  further  examination  of  the  equities  of  specific 
claims.  The  character  of  many  of  the  demands  made 
against  the  Chinese  Government  is  illustrated  by  facts 
which,  once  recited,  require  no  comment  to  make  their 
meaning  plain. 

The  man  whose  hand  penned  the  sentence  I  have  quoted 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  93 

above,  represented  the  United  States  in  China  for  years. 
The  naivete  of  some  of  his  averments  on  record  in  the  State 
Department  is  only  equalled  by  his  acquiescence  in  the 
iniquitous  character  of  the  facts  set  forth.  "  China,"  he 
says,  "  is  placed  very  much  at  the  mercy  of  the  treaty 
powers  in  matters  of  finance  connected  with  its  internal  and 
external  trade  ;  their  stronger  power  comes  in  to  judge 
whether  such  a  course  or  such  a  change  is  proper  or  not,  and 
she  must  act  accordingly."  And  again,  "  There  is  no  limit, 
it  may  almost  be  said,  to  the  degree  which  the  treaty  powers 
may  interfere  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  China,  for  one 
thing  involves  another,  and  every  advance  compels  a  change 
in  a  new  direction  "  ;  and  once  more,  "  The  carrying  out  of 
these  treaties  is  likely  to  affect  the  whole  fabric  of  Chinese 
society,"  and  he  adds  :  "  I  believe  this  tutelage,  with  all  its 
responsibilities,  is  the  best  one  now  available  to  elevate  the 
Chinese  to  their  proper  place  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth."  One  more  quotation  from  this  sapient  authority, 
who  had  seen,  by  the  score,  Chinese  who  had  died  from 
starvation  during  the  siege  of  Canton.  He  says  that  he 
wishes  to  bear  his  "testimony  to  the  efficiency  and  general 
justice  of  the  British  Government  and  its  officials  in  China." 
Of  this  man  it  is  to  be  said  that  he  came  by  his  ideas  by  a 
natural  process,  inasmuch  as,  years  before  he  entered  the 
diplomatic  service  of  this  country,  he  was  Chinese  inter 
preter  to  the  British  consulate  at  Canton.  Through  him 
and  others  who  have  followed  in  his  footsteps  our  policy  in 
China  has  borne  the  same  relation  to  that  of  Great  Britain 
that  the  jackal,  barking  with  approving  delight,  bears  to 
the  larger  animal  that  rends  and  devours  the  prey.  The  al 
leged  diplomat  whose  words  I  have  cited  even  went  to  the 
length  of  demanding  that  a  gold  mine  discovered  in  Shan- 
Tung  should  be  forthwith  opened  under  a  joint  super 
vision  of  the  foreigners  and  the  Chinese  authorities.  He 
based  his  demand  upon  the  somewhat  comprehensive 
ground  that  all  foreign  interests  urged  it  in  one  way  or 


94  THE   CHINESE, 

another,  and  that  the  enterprise,  as  he  termed  it,  could  not 
be  prevented.  But  perhaps  the  most  instructive  incident  in 
our  direct  relations  with  China  are  those  comprised  in  our 
successful  demand  that  China  should  pay  the  damages 
caused  to  Americans  by  the  British  during  the  siege  of 
Canton  and  the  incidents  at  Whampoa  in  1856  and  1857  ; 
the  injuries  having  arisen  as  an  incident  to  the  military 
operations. 


XVIII. 

AMERICAN    CLAIMS    AGAINST    CHINA. 

As  concerns  the  claims  referred  to  in  the  preceding  para 
graph,  it  is  to  be  said  at  the  start  that  they  had  no  legal 
foundation.  Similar  claims  had  been  made  only  a  few  years 
before  against  the  American  Government  by  a  Central 
American  State  for  losses  occasioned  by  the  bombardment 
of  Greytown  by  an  American  man-of-war,  and  had  been 
repudiated  by  our  State  Department,  and  no  jurist  could 
conscientiously  hold  them  as  valid  in  law  ;  nevertheless  our 
government  urged  them  upon  the  Chinese,  and,  by  what 
amounted  virtually  to  a  threat  of  war,  secured  their  pay 
ment.  The  claims  came  before  a  commission  organized  by 
our  government,  and  which  sat  at  Macao  in  the  year  1860. 
Each  individual  case  was  adjudicated  with  the  result  that, 
in  the  aggregate,  the  claims  allowed  were  nearly  half  a 
million  dollars  less  than  the  amount  demanded  and  received 
from  China.  The  total  of  the  claims  made  before  the  com 
mission  was  one  million  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  thou 
sand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-one  dollars.  The  amount 
audited  was  two  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  two 
hundred  and  ninety-six  dollars  and  thirty-five  cents  ;  more 
than  nine  hundred  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  being  dis 
allowed  as  fraudulent.  The  proportion  of  the  actual  to  the 
fraudulent  claims  may  be  reasonably  taken  as  indicating 
the  average  honesty  of  those  in  whose  behalf  our  govern- 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  95 

ment  interposed.  Interest  was  allowed  on  these  claims  at 
the  rate  of  twelve  per  cent ,  which  made  the  matter  a  profit 
able  speculation  for  those  who  actually  suffered  loss.  Even 
some  of  the  claims  allowed  were  without  a  shadow  of  jus 
tice,  let  alone  of  law,  against  the  Government  of  China. 
For  example,  one  claim  for  upwards  of  seventy-five  thou 
sand  dollars — of  which  less  than  thirty  thousand  were 
allowed — was  for  recoupment  for  a  piracy  for  which  clearly 
the  Chinese  Government  was  not  responsible.  Another 
demand,  based  on  similar  grounds,  for  nearly  eleven  thou 
sand  dollars  was  allowed  to  the  extent  of  four  thousand  and 
ninety  dollars.  Among  these  claims  was  one  for  false  im 
prisonment  and  corporal  injury  inflicted  by  Chinese  officers 
at  Canton  in  1841.  This  was  for  fifty  thousand  dollars,  of 
which  ten  thousand  was  allowed,  amounting  with  interest  to 
twenty-one  thousand  dollars.  Quite  possibly  this  claimant 
was  entitled,  on  moral  grounds,  to  all  that  he  received,  but 
the  special  significance  of  the  matter  lies  in  this,  that  when, 
a  few  years  ago,  a  Chinaman  was  murdered  by  an  employee 
of  the  British  Government,  our  then  minister  to  China 
joined  with  those  of  the  various  European  powers  to  resist 
the  demand  for  a  money  indemnity  and  to  assert  that  in  no 
way  could  the  principle  be  conceded. 

It  is  gratifying  to  reflect  that  a  quarter  of  a  century  after 
the  exaction  of  the  indemnity  from  China  the  difference 
between  the  losses  actually  sustained  and  the  amount  re 
ceived  has  been  returned.  But  nothing  can  change  the 
fact  that,  under  the  rulings  of  our  own  State  Department 
and  the  decisions  of  our  own  judicial  tribunals,  there  was 
not  the  slightest  foundation  in  law  even  for  the  claims  that 
were  paid,  with  a  possible  exception  of  two  or  three  which 
were  not  strictly  within  the  general  category.  Out  of  the 
total  of  six  hundred  and  forty-four  thousand  dollars,  in 
cluding  interest,  awarded  to  the  claimants,  at  least  six  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars  appears  to  have  had  no  warrant  in 
international  comity  or  law. 


96  THE    CHINESE, 

If  viewed  from  a  moral  or  ethical  standpoint,  the  true 
character  of  the  claims  for  indemnity  for  these  losses  was 
in  fact  simply  an  assertion  that  the  Chinese  Government 
should  afford  to  the  property  of  foreigners  a  protection  not 
given  to  its  own  citizens.  It  is  further  to  be  remembered 
that  our  own  government  was  in  virtual  sympathy  with  the 
British  assault,  and  only  two  years  later,  one  of  our  naval 
officers,  although  we  were  at  peace  with  China,  joined  the 
British  in  their  attack  on  the  fortifications  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Peiho.  In  like  manner,  seventeen  years  ago,  when  we 
were  under  treaty  obligations  to  maintain  peace  with  China, 
an  American  fleet  composed  of  two  ships  of  war  and  four 
armed  steam-launches  was  sent  by  the  commander  on  the 
China  station  to  prepare  a  chart  of  the  channel  between  the 
main  land  and  the  island  of  Hanghoi  ;  which  was  very 
much  the  same  as  if  a  foreign  power,  against  our  protest, 
should  send  an  armed  squadron  to  take  soundings  in  the 
East  River.  As  was  expected,  and  prepared  for,  the 
Chinese  opposed  the  invasion,  and  as  a  result  had  their 
batteries  silenced  by  American  guns.  This,  a  few  days 
later,  was  followed  up  on  our  part  by  an  attack  in  which 
five  forts  were  completely  destroyed  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  of  the  Chinese  were  slaughtered.  How  much  danger 
was  experienced  by  our  forces  in  this  exploit,  may  be  inferred 
from  our  loss  of  three  killed  and  ten  wounded.  It  was,  how 
ever,  sufficient  to  cause  our  envoy  to  explain  to  our  govern 
ment  that  the  "  gallantry  and  heroism  "  of  our  marines 
were  "conspicuous,"  and  reflected  "honor  and  renown" 
upon  our  "  navy  and  government."  The  same  spirit,  that 
of  the  presumably  strong  against  the  presumably  weak,  has 
been  displayed  in  nearly  all  the  relations  of  the  foreign 
powers  with  the  people  of  China.  And  in  their  aggressions 
we  have  had  a  most  unwarrantable  and  unprofitable  share. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  97 


XIX. 

UNJUSTIFIABLE  INTERFERENCE  OF  FOREIGNERS  WITH  LOCAL 
AND  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS  IN  CHINA. 

WE  have  already  seen  how  venerable  and  how  nearly  ap 
proaching  the  nature  of  a  religion  is  the  reverence  of  the 
Chinese  for  their  social  customs.  Yet  the  disregard  by 
foreigners  of  all  that  the  Chinese  hold  sacred  is  deliberately 
made  a  constant  source  of  irritation.  In  the  words  of  one 
of  our  own  officials,  "  among  the  Chinese  the  unsullied  repu 
tation  and  modest  demeanor  of  females  is  very  highly 
esteemed  ;  and  the  rules  for  separating  the  sexes  are  very 
strict,  both  in  regard  to  their  personal  intercourse,  and  the 
seclusion  of  their  apartments."  Yet  the  Chinese  female 
converts  are  led  to  disregard  this  public  opinion,  and  by 
open  defiance  of  the  usages  common  among  the  respectable 
classes  of  their  own  people,  give  offence  to  their  relatives 
and  neighbors.  In  some  cases  the  marriage  contract  has 
been  interfered  with  by  the  foreigners  ;  and  it  was  to  such  a 
cause  that  the  death  of  one  of  the  missionaries  in  1869  was 
due.  It  is  to  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  while  the 
assassins  of  the  missionary  were  executed,  one  of  them  be 
headed  and  the  other  strangled,  certain  converts  who  en 
gaged  in  offensive  operations  against  the  Chinese  Govern 
ment  have  never  been  punished  ;  and  that  in  another  in 
stance  a  native  convert  who  headed  a  mob  that  killed  two 
hundred  natives  was,  through  the  influence  of  the  mission 
aries,  enabled  to  escape  beyond  sea,  and  was  never  traced. 
Many  of  the  assaults  on  foreigners  which  have  awakened 
indignation  in  Europe  and  in  this  country,  were  kindled 
originally  by  the  deliberate  violation  of  Chinese  law,  or  of 
usages  which  have  the  force  of  law.  The  widespread  and 
deadly  attack  on  the  missionaries  in  1805  was  the  result,  on 
the  part  of  the  latter,  of  an  illicit  attempt  to  send  to  Europe 
maps  and  plans  of  the  country,  in  direct  contravention  of 


9§  THE   CHINESE, 

the  laws  of  the  empire,  and  the  foreigners  were  treated  pre 
cisely  as  natives  would  have  been  for  the  same  offence.  It 
has  been  no  uncommon  thing  for  the  foreign  missionaries 
to  assume  governmental  pretensions,  and  thus  strike  directly 
at  the  homeauthority  of  the  local  officials.  The  assassina 
tion  of  the  Governor  of  Macao  in  1849  was  the  result  of 
cutting  roads  through  the  graves  of  the  Chinese  buried 
outside  of  the  city,  and  the  riot  in  the  French  Concession, 
in  1875,  arose  from  the  same  cause.  When  we  recall  the 
veneration  of  the  Chinese  for  their  ancestors,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  public  feeling  took  the  form  of  violent 
resistance  to  the  desecration  of  the  graves.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  imagine  that  something  similiar  might  have 
occurred  even  in  an  American  city,  had  an  identical  cause 
existed. 

Everywhere  in  China  the  foreigner  has  sought  to  enforce 
his  will  by  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  ;  the  guns  of  war- 
vessels  and  the  sabres  of  marines  are  his  only  arguments. 
And  inasmuch  as  the  Chinese,  though  physically  brave,  are 
badly  armed  and  worse  disciplined,  it  was  only  to  be  ex 
pected  that  all  the  resources  of  Asiatic  diplomacy  would  be 
brought  to  bear  with  all  of  native  craft  in  defence  of  native 
rights.  Nor  shall  we  fail  to  find  that,  after  all,  the  sub 
tlety  and  far-sightedness  of  the  Asiatic  have  more  than 
equalled  the  force  of  the  invaders.  The  claim  that  foreigners 
should  trade  without  let  or  hindrance  in  any  part  of  the 
empire,  and  that  the  payment  of  internal  taxes  should  be 
remitted  in  their  favor,  has  been  in  the  main  successfully 
evaded  or  resisted.  During  some  years  Great  Britain,  who 
controls  seven-eighths  of  the  trade  with  China,  virtually 
ceased  to  insist  upon  it.  But  the  matter  has  again  arisen, 
and,  as  usual,  our  own  government  has  lent  the  moral  sup 
port  of  its  representative  in  China  to  the  aggression  on 
Chinese  rights.  The  indirect  efforts  to  secure  the  proposed 
dominance  of  foreign  influence  in  the  interior  of  China  by 
the  introduction  of  railroads,  telegraphs,  and  steam  naviga- 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION,  99 

tion  under  foreign  management  have  been  brought  to  a 
more  definitely  dismal  end. 

Meanwhile  Chinese  merchants  entering  the  paths  of  com 
petition  which  were  opened  to  them  perforce,  have  in  a 
great  measure  crowded  European  traders  from  numerous 
ports  more  or  less  remote  from  Chinese  coasts.  This  is 
true  of  the  trade  with  Saigon,  in  Cochin  China;  with  Bang 
kok  in  Siam  ;  with  Singapore  in  India ;  with  Batavia 
in  Java  ;  and  with  Manilla  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 
Some  time  since,  the  British  India  Steam  Navigation  Com 
pany  had  a  strong  line  of  vessels  on  the  route  between  Cal 
cutta  and  Singapore,  touching  at  intermediate  points.  A 
Chinese  company  started  a  line  between  Rangoon  and  Sing 
apore,  and  in  a  short  time  the  British  line,  except  for  a 
government  subsidy,  would  have  been  compelled  to  stop — 
the  carrying  business  having  been  reduced  to  the  lowest 
ebb. 

Fourteen  years  ago  a  foreign  company,  without  a  conces 
sion  from  the  Chinese  authorities,  laid  a  short  railway  to 
connect  Shanghai  with  the  river  entrance  to  the  harbor. 
It  was  conceded  that  the  foreigners  who  undertook  the 
enterprise  had  no  right  to  do  so  ;  and  the  American  minis 
ter  expressed  the  opinion  that  "  the  body  of  ministers  at 
Pekin  ought,  in  advance,  to  hold  language  regarding  the 
project  of  a  sort  calculated  to  keep  matters  in  their  present 
satisfactory  condition";  which  being  interpreted  means 
that  certain  foreigners  having  stolen  a  right  of  way  for  a 
purpose  not  recognized  by  the  government,  the  latter  was 
to  be  bullied  by  foreign  pressure  into  compliance.  An 
American  citizen  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  grading,  and 
the  American  representative  declared  that  he  was  ready  to 
defend  the  projectors  in  building  the  railway.  The  only 
stirring  incident  in  the  construction  of  the  road,  however, 
was  a  fight  between  the  American  citizen  aforesaid  and  an  old 
woman  whose  land  was  endangered  by  his  refusal  to  place 
a  culvert  where  the  grading  crossed  a  ditch.  Although  the 


100  THE   CHINESE, 

projectors  had  no  right  to  construct  the  railway,  it  was  pur 
chased  by  the  Chinese  Government  at  a  fair  price,  which  was 
determined  by  arbitration.  It  soon  became  a  matter  of 
newspaper  comment  in  this  country  that  the  rails  were 
taken  up,  and  had  been  exported  to  the  United  States  as 
old  iron. 

The  history  of  the  attempted  telegraph  line  is  sub 
stantially  identical  with  that  of  the  railroad.  In  October, 
1875,  a  Danish  company,  without  any  legal  authority, 
began  the  construction  of  a  telegraph  line  from  Foo-Choo, 
the  centre  of  the  tea  industry,  to  the  port  of  Amoy,  and 
continued  the  construction,  although  the  officials  had  posi 
tively  refused  to  sign  a  contract.  In  this,  as  with  the  rail 
road,  the  American  representative  \vas  not  slow  to  intimate 
that  the  diplomatic  body  should  insist  upon  the  permanent 
enjoyment  of  the  rights  appropriated  without  the  shadow 
of  law.  Twenty  miles  of  the  line  were  destroyed  by  local 
officials,  whereupon  a  claim  for  indemnity  was  set  up  by 
the  company.  As  the  latter  had  a  quasi  agreement  with 
a  body  known  as  "  the  Board  of  Foreign  Trade  "  of  the 
Province,  the  matter  was  finally  settled  by  the  Chinese 
Government  purchasing  the  whole  concern  for  the  sum  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty-four  thousand  five  hundred 
Mexican  dollars,  which  ended  the  controversy,  and  with  it 
the  telegraph  line. 

During  fifteen  years  the  American  Steam  Navigation 
Company  owned  a  fleet  of  twenty  steamships,  two  or  three 
of  which  were  of  American  and  the  others  of  English 
build,  and  which  traded  between  Shanghai  and  the  Yang-tse 
ports  and  Tientsin.  In  1875,  a  Chinese  corporation,  the 
Chinese  Merchandise  Company,  had  vessels  on  the  same 
water  routes.  In  that  year  the  Chinese  Government  agreed 
with  the  native  company  for  certain  freights  at  rates  more 
than  twice  as  high  as  those  obtainable  by  either  company 
in  the  open  market,  and  which,  of  course,  amounted  simply 
to  a  subsidy  to  the  Chinese  company.  In  less  than  two 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  IOI 

years  the  American  enterprise  was  bought  out  by  the 
Chinese,  and  American  competition  with  native  shipping 
was  ended  on  the  rivers  of  China.  The  philanthropic  idea 
of  supplying  China  with  a  currency  by  the  coinage  of  the 
trade  dollar  illustrates  our  ignorance  of  Chinese  methods 
and  Chinese  wants.  In  the  north  of  China,  not  five  hun 
dred  of  the  new  coins  were  found  two  years  after  their 
introduction  ;  while  in  the  south  they  utterly  failed  to 
replace  the  Mexican  dollar,  which  is  a  favorite  form  of 
silver. 

So  much  for  our  diplomacy  with  China  in  matters  of 
comparatively  minor  importance  ;  for  those  referred  to  are 
dwarfed  by  comparison  with  the  Burlingame  Treaty,  in 
which  the  far-reaching  Chinamen  found  in  an  American 
politician  a  convenient  implement  with  which  to  manipulate 
the  policy  of  an  aggressive  but  short-sighted  nation.  That 
treaty  conferred  on  each  of  the  parties  thereto  all  the 
rights  granted  by  the  other  to  the  most  favored  nation. 
The  United  States  has  granted  to  the  most  favored  nations 
the  right,  on  the  part  of  their  citizens,  of  passing  without 
restraint  to  all  portions  of  our  country,  of  transacting  busi 
ness  to  the  same  extent  and  in  the  same  manner  as  our 
own  citizens,  and  of  freely  exercising  their  religion  without 
let  or  hindrance.  China  has  granted  to  her  favored 
nations  the  right  of  their  citizens  to  travel  to  and  reside  in 
certain  open  ports,  and  nowhere  else.  To  quote  the  lan 
guage  of  our  consul  at  Ningpo,  "  it  is  a  settled  question  so 
far  as  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  concerned, 
that  missionaries  have  no  right  to  reside  elsewhere  than  at 
the  open  ports,"  and  that  such  right  does  not  extend  to 
other  citizens.  This  interpretation  of  the  treaty  has  been 
concurred  in  by  our  State  Department,  and  also  by  the 
British  Government,  whose  instructions  to  her  envoy  have 
been  of  the  same  tenor.  As  concerns  the  missionaries, 
however,  the  Chinese  Government,  tolerant  in  all  matters 
of  religion  where  official  routine  or  established  practice  is 


102  THE   CHINESE, 

not  disturbed,  has  of  late  years  freed  from  taxation  the 
Christian  places  of  worship,  and  there  seems  to  be  little, 
within  the  lines  just  indicated,  except  the  prejudices  of  the 
people  to  operate  against  such  success  of  missions  in 
China  as  is  consistent  with  the  stolid  inertia  of  the  race. 


XX. 

CHINESE  MILITARY  STRENGTH. —  OUR  FOREIGN  POLICY  WITH 
REGARD     TO     CHINA. 

I  HAVE  spoken  of  the  past  of  China,  of  the  type  and 
character  of  her  people,  of  her  present  condition,  and  of 
her  relations  with  the  nations  of  the  west.  We  now  ap 
proach  the  bearings  of  all  these  upon  the  welfare  of  our 
own  country.  Prelimary  to  this  the  query  naturally  arises, 
what  of  the  future  of  China  ?  In  what  way  and  in  what 
direction  will  her  energies  expand  ;  or  is  she  destined  to 
take  but  the  place  of  a  hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of  water 
to  other  and  stronger  nations  of  the  earth  ? 

The  latter  proposition  is  almost  too  absurd  for  a  moment's 
consideration.  The  population  of  China  in  A.D.  1753  was 
102,300,000  ;  seven  years  later  it  was  143,125,000  ;  five  years 
later  yet,  198,214,000  ;  seven  years  after  this,  viz.,  in  1792,  in 
round  numbers,  333,000,000,  and  in  1812,  the  latest  census, 
361,221,000.  The  increase  between  1753  and  1792  repre 
sents  the  normal  increase  under  the  best  conditions  ;  for  this 
period  of  about  forty  years  was  the  most  peaceful  and  pros 
perous  that  China  had  known  for  several  centuries.  In  that 
time  her  far-sighted  policy  in  excluding  the  restless  and  ad 
venturous  foreigner  bore  its  most  abundant  fruit,  and  except 
that  the  military  spirit  of  the  people  was  lulled  to  sleep  by  the 
peace  of  these  and  many  preceding  years,  her  progress  was 
definite  and  great.  The  rapid  and  marked  diminution  of  the 
ratio  of  growth  of  the  population  from  1792  to  1812  is  admit 
ted  by  English  writers,  and  proven  by  other  evidence,  to  be 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  103 

due  to  the  introduction  and  consumption  of  opium.  In  the 
absence  of  positive  data,  the  annual  increase  since  the 
date  last  mentioned  may  be  approximately  calculated  at  one 
per  cent,  per  annum,  which  is  but  one-fifth  of  the  normal 
ratio  of  a  laboring  population  not  subjected  to  any  spe 
cially  deteriorating  influence  and  adequately  supplied  with 
food.  Small  as  this  ratio  is,  a  simple  arithmetical  calculation 
shows  that  the  Chinese  number,  at  the  present  time,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  or  from 
two-fifths  to  one-half  of  the  entire  population  of  the  globe. 
Their  mental  attributes  and  physical  strength  and  endur 
ance  have  been  already  considered  herein  ;  their  military 
capacity  and  courage  constitute  an  additional  factor  in  the 
question. 

Western  ideas  of  the  warlike  prowess  of  the  Chinese  are 
obtained  principally  from  the  coastwise  wars  with  the  Brit 
ish  and  the  French,  and  appear  to  have  been  derived  from 
an  imperfect  conception  of  the  premises.  As  before  re 
marked,  China  had  possessed,  during  seven  generations,  a 
substantial  peace  throughout  her  empire  when  the  attack  on 
Canton  took  place  in  1847.  The  inland  troops  were  armed 
for  the  most  part  with  bows  and  arrows,  the  muskets  were 
matchlocks  of  antique  pattern.  Whoever  has  loitered  on  the 
esplanade  of  the  Tower  of  London  will  have  noted,  among 
the  trophies  of  Anglo-Saxon  conquests,  cannon  taken 
from  the  walls  of  Canton  and  representing  their  armament. 
They  bear  the  marks  and  the  dates  of  German  foun 
dries  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  With  soldiers 
called  suddenly  from  the  peaceful  rice-fields,  a  military  or 
ganization  grown  weak  and  careless  by  long  disuse,  and 
armed  with  weapons  that  were  as  playthings  compared  to 
the  fire-arms  of  the  invaders,  the  wonder  is,  not  that  they 
were  defeated,  but  that  they  were  able  to  resist  at  all. 
And  a  like  remark  applies  to  the  wars  of  1857  and  1862. 
But  any  conclusions  drawn  from  this  condition  of  affairs 
with  regard  to  the  future  are  likely  to  be  fallacious  to  a 


104  THE    CHINESE, 

degree.  "  Individual  bravery  was  often  exhibited,"  wrote 
the  commander  of  the  British  ship-of-war  Bonetta,  "  but 
in  no  instance  did  the  Chinese  fight  well  in  a  body."  This 
applied  to  the  conflicts  of  1847.  The  American,  Ward,  in 
the  Tae-ping  war  organized  a  legion  of  five  hundred 
Chinese  to  whom  he  taught  the  discipline  and  tactics  of 
Europe,  and  they  proved  themselves  almost  invincible  in 
all  the  varied  contingencies  of  battle.  With  the  drill  and 
discipline,  the  arms  of  precision,  and  the  improved  equip 
ments  of  Europe,  the  Chinese  will  be  by  far  the  strongest 
military  nation  in  the  world. 

Add  to  this  the  advent,  sooner  or  later,  of  a  railway 
system  designed  upon  strategic  grounds,  and  a  few  decades 
may  witness  a  total  reversal  of  the  position  of  China  with 
reference  to  the  countries  of  the  west. 

According  to  information  furnished  our  State  Department 
in  1885,  China  is  taking  thorough  and  effective  measures 
for  naval  and  military  reorganization;  and  it  is  significant  of 
the  Chinese  knowledge  of  European  affairs  that  she  has 
turned  to  Germany  as  affording  the  most  valuable  example 
and  means  of  instruction.  "  German  army  and  navy  offi 
cers  are  being  nearly  everywhere  employed  ;  the  arsenals 
and  powder  mills  are  being  equipped  according  to  German 
plans,  and  ships  and  troops  are  under  German  instructors." 
The  same  despatch  sets  forth  that  "  the  Chinese  know  full 
well  the  importance,  for  military  purposes,  of  railroads  and 
telegraph  lines  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  every  effort 
will  be  made  to  have  such  railroad  lines  made  as  will  lead  to 
concentrating  and  provisioning  her  troops."  The  American 
legation  in  the  same  year  is  authority  for  the  statement  that 
the  improved  fire-arms  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Chinese 
troops  in  Tonquin  in  their  warfare  with  the  French,  "  in 
creased  their  courage  ten-fold, "the  French,  as  is  well  known, 
having  been  frequently  defeated  by  them.  Precise  data 
concerning  the  recent  military  development  of  China  is 
difficult  of  access,  but  evidence  is  not  wanting  that  her 


AND    THE    CHIXESE   QUESTION,  105 

preparations  for  possible  hostilities  are  many  and  great. 
An  English  authority  in  1880  averred  that  within  ten  years 
of  that  time  China  would  be  no  longer  dependent  upon  for 
eigners  for  munitions  of  war  ;  and  that  her  ship-yards  and 
arsenals  would  equal  those  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  of  course 
impossible  to  say  to  what  extent  this  prediction  has  thus 
far  been  verified,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  its 
fulfillment  has  been  closely  approximated.  During  the 
year  1881  China  added  to  her  navy  eleven  steel  vessels,  of 
which  it  was  said  that  "  no  unarmored  vessel  afloat  equals 
them  in  power,  nor  any  armored  vessel  in  speed  ;  in  pene 
tration  and  range  their  guns  are  only  exceeded  by  one 
English  and  one  Italian  vessel."  Following  a  policy  traced 
on  lines  like  this,  not  many  years  will  be  required  to  enable 
China  to  hold  her  own  against  the  navies  of  the  West,  and 
seizing,  as  she  will,  the  opportunities  afforded  by  some 
period  of  internecine  strife  in  Europe,  to  strike  blows 
heavy  and  hard. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  notable  documents  ever  written 
by  a  Chinese  Government  official  was  a  memorial  addressed 
to  the  emperor  by  Tso  Tung  Tang,  who  for  twenty-five 
years  had  been  viceroy  of  Nankin.  It  recommends  as  an 
initial  step  the  building  of  a  railway  to  connect  the  strategic 
points  of  the  north  and  south  ;  and  this,  if  carried  into 
effect,  would  enable  troops  and  war  material  to  be  sent 
from  the  southern  sea-coast  to  the  Russian  frontier  in  fifty 
hours.  It  also  recommends  a  system  of  coast  defences  for 
the  entire  seaboard  of  ten  thousand  <fc,  or  four  thousand 
miles  ;  a  symmetrical  administrative  system  for  the  land  and 
naval  forces,  and  the  translation  into  the  Chinese  language 
of  works  which  afford  an  insight  into  foreign  military  affairs. 
The  level  contour  of  the  whole  country  is  favorable  to  rail 
way  construction  in  almost  every  direction,  and  a  railway 
system  converging  to  the  routes  along  which  commercial 
travel  has  passed  since  remote  ages  will  constitute  a  colossal 
menace  to  India,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that,  in  some  not 


106  THE   CHINESE, 

remote  future  (for  a  generation  is  but  a  day  in  the  history  of 
races)  the  opium  scourge  from  Bengal  may  be  repaid  through 
armaments  patterned  upon  the  work  of  British  armories. 
Given  a  military  system  of  railways  and  telegraphs,  armies 
provided  and  trained  with  the  improved  fire-arms  of  to-day, 
fortresses  armed  with  the  heavy  steel  ordnance  of  Europe, 
and  ironclads  such  as  she  even  now  possesses,  China  will 
no  longer  be  the  plaything  of  the  west — no  longer  a  nation 
to  be  defrauded  or  plundered.  It  will  need  but  an  alliance 
between  the  czar  and  the  emperor  to  divide  British  India 
between  the  Chinese  and  the  Slav.  With  a  policy  which 
shall  exclude  the  Chinese  from  our  territory  while  our  pop 
ulation  grows  to  fulness  and  strength,  and  with  the  wide 
Pacific  between,  our  people  may  watch  from  afar  the  conflict 
which  must  arise  when  the  millions  of  China,  swarming  like 
bees  from  the  hive,  but  furnished  with  the  means  of  aggres 
sion  drawn  from  the  west,  shall  overflow  her  borders,  not 
as  now  to  seek  peaceful  subsistence  from  labor,  but  with 
all  the  avid  anger  of  conquest. 

I  have  considered  the  past  and  the  present  of  China, 
the  character,  strength  and  tendencies  of  her  people,  her 
place  in  the  economy  of  the  civilized  world  ;  and  am  now  to 
consider  her  relations  with  our  own  people.  This  part 
of  the  matter  in  hand  has  two  branches — our  relations  as  a 
nation  with  her,  and  the  relations  of  her  people,  as  immi 
grants,  to  our  own.  Of  the  former  I  have  already  spoken 
in  some  detail.  Our  foreign  policy,  if  it  deserves  the  name 
with  regard  to  China,  has  been  one  of  blind  servility  to 
European  ideas  and  European  interests,  with  no  advan 
tage  to  our  country  or  to  our  people.  To  consider 
this  minutely  would  involve  a  digression  into  inter 
national  politics  of  greater  length,  and  possibly  of  greater 
acridity,  than  I  have  space  or  time  to  here  enter  upon. 
But  no  conscientious  student  of  our  international  relations 
with  China  can  doubt  for  a  moment  that  the  time  has  come 
when  we  should  break  loose  from  foreign  affiliations  in 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  107 

our  concerns  with  that  country,  and  to  treat  with  her  upon  the 
basis  of  mutual  justice  without  deference  to  European 
interests  or  European  ideas  ;  and  that  we  should  cease  to  lend 
aid  and  comfort  to  nations  that,  for  their  own  profit  and  to 
her  detriment,  iniquitously  meddle  with  her  affairs.  We 
have  played  the  part  of  jackal  and  fag  to  British  interests 
along  the  coasts  and  on  the  mainland  of  China  far  too  long 
Every  American  interest  that  deserves  protection  will  be 
better  guarded  if  segregated  from  those  of  nations  whose 
policy  has  devastated  the  provinces  of  China,  and  whose 
cannon  have  desolated  her  cities.  Even  our  missionaries, 
whose  psalms  rise  musical  and  unmolested  within  hearing  of 
the  imperial  palace  of  Pekin,  will  fare  better  and  meet  with 
far  more  excellent  success  if  it  be  understood  that  their  work 
forms  no  part  of  the  aggressive  methods  of  the  west. 
Necessary  as  it  is  for  our  own  protection  that  the  people  of 
China  be  eliminated  from  our  country,  we,  in  common 
equity,  can  have  no  share  or  lot  in  aggressions  upon  the 
country  which,  from  the  dawn  of  time,  has  belonged  to  them. 
I  come  now  to  that  phase  of  the  subject  which  relates  to 
the  bearing  of  Chinese  immigration  upon  the  interests, 
present  and  future,  of  our  own  country  and  our  own  peo 
ple,  and  to  the  consideration  of  which  the  preceding  pages 
are  but  the  prelude.  If  it  be  remarked  that  the  prelude 
is  longer  than  the  other,  it  is  to  be  repeated,  what  I  have 
already  in  substance  said,  that  to  fully  comprehend  the 
full  meaning  of  the  term  "  Chinese  immigration,"  it  is  es 
sential  to  first  understand  the  race  and  the  nation  to  whom 
these  Chinese  belong. 


XXL 

INCEPTION    AND      PROGRESS    OF    CHINESE     IMMIGRATION     TO 
THE    PACIFIC    CO\ST. 

As  there  has  been  occasion  herein  to  mention,  from  the 
forcibly-opened  ports  of  China  slavers  bore  coolies  to  Peru, 


ic8  THE   CHINESE, 

In  the  year  1850  a  score  of  these  Chinese  escaped  from 
bondage  and,  on  one  pretext  or  another,  obtained  passage 
on  a  vessel  bound  for  California  in  the  early  gold-dust  days. 
They  saw  the  wealth  and  freedom  of  the  country,  its  high 
productiveness,  the  high  wages  paid  to  labor.  But  not  all 
of  these  could  keep  them  long,  and  in  the  course  of  two  or 
three  years  they  had  found  their  way  home,  and  soon  the 
returning  wanderers  spread  over  the  whole  country  by  and 
beyond  Canton  the  tale  of  the  new  land  with  which  their 
exile  had  made  them  familiar.  At  first  a  few  in  number, 
like  straggling  ants,  they  came,  then  more  and  more,  by 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  until  they  constitute  at 
the  present  time  more  than  one-half  of  the  adult  male  popu 
lation  of  the  Pacific  coast  of  the  United  States. 

When  British  cannon  first  opened  Chinese  ports,  Cali 
fornia  was  known  to  us  mainly  as  a  land  fruitful  in  prod 
ucts  and  winsome  in  climate  :  a  broad  territory,  coveted  by 
Great  Britain  and  by  our  own  country,  and  held  with  an 
unsteady  hand  by  Mexico.  Ten  years  later  it  belonged  to 
the  United  States,  and  its  gold  mines  made  it  the  El  Dorado 
of  the  restless  of  all  nations.  With  the  others  came  the 
Chinese.  As  individuals  they  came  and  returned  to  their 
own  country,  a  constant  ebb  and  flow.  As  a  people  they 
came  to  stay.  Their  number  has  constantly  increased  in 
spite  of  all  obstacles,  until,  in  commerce  and  industries,  their 
influence  is  dominant  through  all  the  Pacific  coast,  and 
their  advance  scouts  have  extended  to  the  Atlantic  sea 
board.  It  is  in  California,  however,  that  the  problems 
springing  from  their  presence  have  most  forcibly  arisen, 
and  it  is  from  California  that  facts  conclusive  in  the  solution 
of  these  problems  must  be  derived. 

California  has  a  population,  Chinese  included,  of  about 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  or  somewhat  less  than 
four  individuals  to  the  square  mile.  The  land,  at  the  date 
of  its  annexation,  was  held  in  large  grants,  some  from  the 
Mexican,  others  primarily  from  the  Spanish  Government, 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  109 

and  all,  so  far  as  they  were  bond  fide,  protected  by  the 
treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo.  Although  these  lands  have 
in  a  measure  passed  to  new  owners,  they  have  seldom  been 
divided  into  smaller  holdings,  and  are  now  possessed  by  a 
comparatively  small  percentage  of  the  entire  population  of 
the  State.  The  influx  of  Chinese  labor,  almost  simultaneous 
with  the  new  settlement  of  the  country,  provided  a  means 
by  which  these  lands  could  be  worked  at  little  cost,  and 
obviated  the  necessity,  which  otherwise  would  have  existed, 
of  dividing  the  immense  ranches  into  farms.  Chinese 
immigration,  therefore,  buttressed  the  almost  feudal  control 
of  the  land.  In  their  turn  the  great  land-owners  lent  the 
power  of  their  wealth,  their  political  influence,  and  their 
business  talent  in  favor  of  the  system  of  cheap  labor  by 
which  their  own  power  was  maintained.  From  this  it  has 
followed  that  the  social  economy  of  Californian  agriculture 
has  throughout  been  different  from  that  of  any  other 
country  professedly  governed  by  republican  institutions  or 
assuming  to  be  controlled  by  republican  traditions. 

The  great  crops  which  form  the  staple  productions  of  the 
soil  are  such  as  require  no  tillage  between  seedtime  and 
harvest,  which  thus  become  the  only  active  seasons  of  the 
year.  East  of  the  Sierras  the  conditions  of  farming  are 
such  that  there  is  opportunity  for  continuous  labor  from 
early  spring  to  later  autumn,  and  even  in  some  degree 
throughout  the  winter  months  ;  and  the  farm  laborer  has 
opportunity  for  constant  occupation.  Forming,  as  he  does, 
a  part  of  a  homogeneous  community,  he  has,  if  a  man  of 
family,  a  fixed  abode,  however  rude,  and  has  within  his 
reach  many,  at  least,  of  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life.  If  sin 
gle,  he  commonly  resides  in  the  family  of  his  employer. 
Under  such  circumstances  the  existence  of  the  farm  hand 
is  rendered  tolerable,  neither  undignified  nor  unworthy  ; 
and  there  is  nothing  in  his  condition  which  need  impair  his 
self-respect  or  deny  to  his  industry  or  skill  their  legitimate 
reward  of  pecuniary  or  social  success.  But  nothing  of  this 


no  THE   CHINESE, 

exists  in  California  farming.  The  laborer  is  hired  during 
a  few  weeks  of  the  heavy  spring  work  and  of  the  harvest. 
He  receives  his  wages  and  his  rations,  and  is  expected  to 
lodge  himself.  Wrapped  in  his  blanket,  he  sleeps  in  an 
outhouse  or  on  the  threshed  straw  under  the  rainless  sky. 
When  the  season  of  driving  work  is  over  he  goes  away, 
whither  no  one  knows,  and  no  one  cares.  Thus  periods  of 
long  idleness  intervene  between  seasons  of  severe  labor. 
Such  a  system  is  possible  only  in  a  country  composed  of 
estates  of  immense  proportions,  tilled  by  labor  of  the 
cheapest  and  most  servile  kind. 

The  discovery  of  gold,  the  reported  fertility  of  the  soil, 
and  the  beauty  of  the  climate  led,  at  the  outset,  to  a  large 
immigration  from  the  Eastern  States  ;  to  the  organization 
of  a  commonwealth  based  on  their  political  traditions  and 
social  usages.  These  traditions  and  usages  were  and  still 
are  directly  counter  to  those  which,  in  all  ages,  have  result 
ed  from  the  control  of  the  land  by  the  few,  and  to  those 
represented  by  the  cheap  labor  of  the  Chinese.  The  civil 
ization  represented  by  the  masses  of  the  white  settlers  on 
the  Pacific  coast  had,  as  an  inherent  necessity,  a  remunera 
tion  of  labor  adequate  to  the  comfortable  maintenance  of 
families,  their  education,  their  refinement  in  manners,  mind 
and  morals,  which  can  only  obtain  where  the  physical  be 
ing  is  sustained  by  sufficient  nutrition,  and  the  intellect  and 
emotional  nature  suffered  to  expand  by  a  fair  degree  of 
leisure.  The  civilization  represented  by  the  large  land 
owners  was  that  springing  from  the  use  of  labor  secured  at 
the  lowest  possible  remuneration,  regardless  of  its  effects 
on  the  laboring  classes.  This  labor  was  found  in  the  Chi 
nese  immigrants  who,  without  families,  and  used,  in  their 
own  country,  to  the  smallest  wages,  could  be  obtained  in 
unlimited  number  at  rates  lower  than  those  necessary  for 
the  bare  sustenance  of  white  workingmen.  The  conflict 
between  these  two  forms  of  civilization  began  early.  It  has 
extended  to  every  branch  of  industry,  and  the  results  thus 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  Ill 

far  have  been  detrimental  in  the  extreme  to  that  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  consider  as  the  highest  form  of  Cauca 
sian  society. '""The  Chinese  have  invaded  every  department 
of  industry,  and  Chinese  executive  ability  has  marshalled 
that  labor  into  the  most  effective  opposition  to  the  indus 
trial  classes  of  the  whites.  Everywhere,  except  among  the 
wealthy,  the  white  man  has  gone  to  the  wall  in  the  compe 
tition  with  the  Asiatic. 


XXII. 

INJURIOUS   EFFECTS    OF    CHINESE    IMMIGRATION    IN    CALI 
FORNIA. 

THE  extent  to  which  the  presence  of  the  Chinese  has 
been  inimical  to  our  people  is  most  conveniently  illustrated 
by  reference  to  the  various  branches  of  industry  on  the  Pa 
cific  coast  ;  for  the  manufacturing  interests  that,  with  a 
normal  development  of  society,  would  have  been  built  up 
by  white  labor,  have  virtually  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Chinese.  The  result  is,  not  only  that  laboring  men,  as  such, 
are  thrown  out  of  employment,  or  reduced  to  wages  insuffi- 
cient  for  comfortable  maintenance,  but  all  those  occupa 
tions  which,  even  in  the  most  crowded  Caucasian  communi 
ties,  afford  a  frugal  sustenance  to  women  and  children,  are 
monopolized  by  the  Chinese.  For  example,  in  some  por 
tions  of  the  Eastern  States,  as  also  in  England,  the  season 
of  picking  hops  is  one  as  festive  in  character  as  the  vintage 
of  France  or  Italy,  because  it  affords  unusually  high  wages 
during  three  or  four  weeks  to  women  and  children  whose 
labor  at  other  seasons  has  little  money  value.  Wherever, 
east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  hops  are  grown,  the  hop- 
picking  season  is  looked  forward  to  by  thousands  of  young 
girls  and  by  needy  families  as  offering  a  means  of  ready 
money,  the  use  of  which  is  oftenaextended  throughout  the 
remainder  of  the  year.  In  California  the  hop-picking  is 


J  I  2  THE    CHINESE. 

done  by  Chinese  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others.  So,  also,  in 
many  portions  of  the  Eastern  States,  the  season  of  berry- 
picking  affords  an  opportunity  for  the  earning  of  money, 
which,  to  the  poor,  softens  the  hardships  of  other  and  more 
scanty  seasons.  In  California,  berry-picking,  which,  at  one 
time,  was  availed  of  by  women  and  children,  has  been  en 
tirely  absorbed  by  Chinese.  The  weaving,  which  formerly 
was  done  almost  entirely  by  women,  is  now  done  by  Chi 
nese.  In  the  making  of  underclothing,  Chinese  do  the 
work  which  in  this  country  and  Europe  is  performed  by 
seamstresses.  The  laundry  work,  the  dress-making,  and 
the  millinery  work  have  been  passed  to  the  Chinese.  The 
manufacture  of  shoes  for  women  and  children  is  entirely  in 
their  hands.  The  gathering  of  fruit,  the  digging  of  pota 
toes,  the  care  of  gardens,  is  for  the  most  part  done  by  them. 
The  handling  of  the  immense  crops  of  the  coast  calls  for 
the  use  of  many  tens  of  thousands  of  grain-bags,  which  are 
all  sewed  by  Chinese.  In  the  large  dairies,  some  of  them 
having  from  a  thousand  to  thirteen  hundred  cows,  the  milk 
ing  and  other  dairy  work  is  performed  by  Chinese.  The 
seating  of  cane  chairs,  which  forms  the  last  resource  for 
poor  women  in  eastern  cities,  is  in  California  given  over  to 
Chinamen. 

When  white  labor  is  thus  crowded  away  from  the  minor  and 
poorer  industries,  it  follows,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  other 
and  more  remunerative  occupations  are  filled  in  the  same 
way.  The  Chinese  are  employed  in  the  woollen  mills,  in 
the  tanneries,  in  fisheries,  in  the  canning  of  fruits,  etc., 
in  the  varnishing  of  furniture  and  the  like,  in  the  building 
of  embankments  for  the  redemption  of  overflowed  lands  ; 
in  railway  work,  the  making  of  road-cuttings,  and  the  dig 
ging  of  tunnels.  There  is  scarcely  a  manufacture  in  which 
they  do  not  constitute  the  whole  or  the  great  majority  of 
the  operatives.  In  one  establishment  in  San  Francisco  (the 
Mission  Woollen  Mills),  five  hundred  and  fifty  Chinese  have 
been  employed  at  one  time.  In  a  neighboring  spring-mat- 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  "3 

tress  factory,  not  a  single  white  man  found  work  ;  and,  near 
by,  the  only  oakum  factory  in  the  city  was  also  Chinese 
throughout.  In  placer-mining  there  were  four  thousand  in 
one  neighborhood,  near^OnrvjUe  ;  and  in  many  localities 
they  have  entirely  exhausted  mines  which,  although  inca 
pable  of  profit  with  the  wasteful  methods  in  vogue  twenty 
years  ago,  would  have  proved  by  this  time  sources  of  rev 
enue  to  the  whites.  There  are  in  San  Francisco  fifteen 
thousand  boys  and  girls,  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and 
twenty,  who,  in  eastern  communities,  would  find  active  em 
ployment  ;  but  they  cannot  compete  with  the  Chinese,  and 
are  for  the  most  part  idle.  In  this  last-mentioned  fact  lies 
the  origin  of  the  "  hoodlum  "  and  the  moral  genesis  of  his 
ways.  Youth  who,  under  normal  conditions  of  industry, 
would  have  occupation  at  wages  in  some  measure  commen 
surate  with  the  requirements  of  maintenance,  find  their 
places  filled  by  Chinese,  whose  habits  of  life  are  such  that 
the  smallest  remuneration  yields  what  in  their  eyes  is  abun 
dance. 

cry  -T    4^0  rTvA-    ^-ct/-? 

Competition  with  Chinese  labor  is  simply  competition  with 

the  conditions  under  which  the  Chinese  laborer  chooses  to 
exist.  But  the  Caucasian  can  neither  eat  the  food,  nor 
breathe  the  air,  nor  sleep  in  the  dens  that  are  opulence  and 
comfort  to  the  Chinese  coolie.  For  unnumbered  genera 
tions  the  latter  has  existed  under  the  same  conditions  that 
he  makes  for  himself  in  the  new  world,  and  his  nature  has 
become  dulled  to  the  influence  of  noxious  odors,  of  foul 
surroundings,  of  crowded  rooms,  and  of  a  noisome  atmos 
phere.  What  the  Board  of  Health  of  a  Caucasian  city  re 
gards  with  disgust  and  abhorrence  as  a  probable  source  of 
pestilence,  the  Chinese  regard  without  concern.  It  has 
often  been  remarked  by  those  familiar  with  the  people  of 
China,  that  diseases  which  are  fatal  to  the  European  are 
comparatively  harmless  to  the  Chinese. 

The  Chinaman,  it  is  claimed,  and  apparently  with  truth, 
will  learn  any  given  mechanical   operation   in  one-third  of 


H4  THE   CHINESE, 

the  time  required  by  a  white  workman.  He  has  no  family ; 
he  lives  in  the  most  frugal  manner  ;  he  lodges  upon  a 
wooden  bench  ;  he  has  been  used  at  home  to  wages  that 
would  hardly  more  than  sustain  life.  His  sole  ambition  is 
to  accumulate  from  two  hundred  to  four  hundred  dollars, 
which  is  to  him  a  fortune,  and  which  enables  him  to  return 
as  a  rich  man  to  his  own  country.  He  is  obedient  and 
servile.  By  means  of  all  this  he  is  enabled  to  live  as  no 
white  man  could  live,  even  if  the  white  man  were  not 
burdened  with  the  support  of  wife  and  children.  The  re 
sult  has  been  to  prevent  the  emigration  of  a  strong  and 
healthy  laboring  class  of  kindred  and  easily  affiliated  races 
from  the  Eastern  States  and  from  Europe.  Thus  there 
has  been  almost  wholly  wanting  in  California  the  element 
that  contributed  so  largely  to  build  up  the  prosperity  of 
the  whole  country  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

The  evil  of  this  has  been  twofold.  Not  only  has  the  sum 
total  of  a  large  Caucasian  immigration  been  lost,  but  there 
has  been  none  of  the  natural  and  legitimate  increase  of  pop 
ulation  that  would  have  resulted  therefrom.  In  the  Eastern 
States  the  Swedish,  Irish,  or  German  maiden  finds  ready 
employment  in  domestic  service  ;  in  course  of  time  she 
marries  and  children  are  born,  and  families  surrounded  by 
the  safeguards  of  Christian  communities  grow  up  to  careers 
of  usefulness  and  often  of  honor.  In  the  second  or  third 
generation  the  descendants  of  the  European  immigrant 
are  so  completely  merged  with  our  people  that  no  differ 
ence  is  perceptible.  In  California  anything  of  the  kind  is 
impossible.  To  a  certain  extent  it  existed  before  Chinese 
cheap  labor  had  become  so  overpowering  as  it  now  is  ;  but 
it  has  diminished  in  the  same  ratio  that  the  latter  grew  to 
be  the  dominant  feature  of  the  Californian  industrial  system. 
California  has  thus  been  shut  off  from  the  legitimate  ele 
ments  of  growth  which  would  have  made  her,  in  all  the 
essentials  of  material  and  moral  prosperity,  tenfold  stronger 
than  she  is  to-day.  Chinese  labor  has  operated  not  only  to 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  n5 

prevent,  but  to  destroy,  the  normal  development  of  the  State, 
and  to  thrown  upon  the  people  unwonted  burdens.  In 
every  community  there  are  many  who,  through  adversity, 
are  throw  suddenly  upon  their  own  resources — children, 
and  tender  women  who  must  seek  a  sustenance  in  humble 
employments.  Where  access  to  these  is  closed,  as  it  is  by 
Chinese  labor,  the  alternative  is  fearful  and  plain.  The 
woman  who,  in  California,  without  friends  or  money  seeks  to 
earn  a  livelihood  by  any  of  the  occupations  commonly  open 
to  her  class  in  even  the  most  crowded  cities  of  Europe  or 
of  the  Eastern  States,  is  met  at  every  turn  by  Chinese  who 
will  work  for  less  than  is  necessary  to  support  life  and 
health  in  a  person  of  Caucasian  descent  and  training.  There 
is  for  her  the  simple  alternative  of  shame  or  starvation. 
The  man  who  is  dependent  upon  his  handiwork  for  daily 
bread  finds  his  children  dwarfed  for  need  of  mere  physi 
cal  nutrition,  because  his  income,  beaten  down  by  Chinese 
competition,  is  inadequate  to  their  support  ;  and  beggary 
and  crime  are  the  natural  results. 

The  same  cause  has  produced  another  evil  01  no  slight 
social  magnitude.  Where  young  men  find  the  prospect  of 
supporting  families  to  be  insecure,  they  do  not  marry. 
From  such  a  condition  of  society  the  political  economist 
deduces  with  certainty  that  the  normal  increase  of  the  pop 
ulation  will  be  slow  ;  the  student  of  moral  science  deduces 
with  equal  positiveness  that  the  standard  of  public  and  pri 
vate  morals  will  be  debased. 

It  is  an  axiom,  that  where  servile  labor  is  brought  in 
contact  with  that  of  a  higher  social  character,  the  latter  is 
brought  down  to  the  level  of  the  former.  It  was  an  argu 
ment  used  with  effect  against  the  institution  of  negro  slavery 
that  it  was  not  the  colored  man  alone,  but  the  free  white 
laborer  also,  who  bore  the  stigma  associated  with  manual 
toil.  The  same  rule  of  association  holds  true  as  between 
the  Chinese  and  the  white  workingrnan  in  California.  In 
the  city  of  San  Francisco,  sixty  thousand  of  the  Chinese 


Ii6  THE   CHINESE, 

are  crowded  into  six  or  seven  blocks  of  buildings.  A  single 
story  measuring  twelve  feet  from  floor  to  ceiling  is  some 
times  divided  by  two  intermediate  floors,  making  three 
stories  in  one,  all  occupied  by  Chinese.  The  streets  in  that 
portion  of  the  city  are  connected  from  one  side  to  the  other 
by  subterranean  passages,  so  that  the  occupants  of  the 
houses  pass  underground  from  building  to  building.  Some 
times  the  upper  stories  of  the  structures  are  built  outward 
over  the  street  until,  at  some  distance  from  the  ground, 
they  approach  within  two  feet  of  each  other.  The  district 
embraces  among  its  denizens  some  four  or  five  thousand 
Chinese  women,  of  whom  not  more  than  one  in  twenty  is 
other  than  the  vilest  of  the  vile.  When  the  chief  laboring 
class  steams  and  festers  in  such  dens  as  these,  labor  itself 
must  stand  low  in  public  respect.  And  with  such  associa 
tions  and  such  competition,  the  wonder  is,  not  that  the 
white  population  is  turbulent,  but  that  it  is  not  a  hundred 
times  more  revolutionary  in  its  ideas  and  lawless  in  their 
expression. 

XXIII. 

TRUE    STATUS    OF     CHINESE    LABOR    IN    THIS     COUNTRY. 

I  AM  aware  that  it  is  sometimes  claimed  that  Chinese 
labor  is  not  servile,  but  free.  In  a  subject  so  important, 
we  need  hardly  tolerate  a  quibble  on  words  or  a  balancing 
of  technical  phrases.  A  people  is  servile  when  it  becomes 
an  inert  mass,  directed  solely  by  the  will  of  others,  and 
repelled  by  fear  from  exercising  the  ordinary  prerogatives 
of  freemen.  That  this  is  the  case  with  the  Chinese  in 
California  is  apparent  when  we  consider,  never  so  briefly, 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  are  brought  into  the 
country,  and  the  tenure  by  which  their  stay  is  determined. 
The  real  masters  of  the  Chinese  in  California  are  those  of 
their  own  countrymen  who  compose  the  Six  Companies,  the 
Sam  Yup,  Kong  Chow,  Wing  Yung,  Hop  Wo,  Young  Wo, 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  117 

and  Yang  Wo.  These  enforce  their  authority  partly  as 
creditors  of  the  laborers,  and  partly  by  combinations  with 
the  steamship  companies.  A  contractor  desiring  any  given 
number  of  Chinese  makes  an  agreement  with  one  or  the 
other  of  the  companies,  which  undertakes  to  furnish  the 
desired  number,  to  be  selected  in  China.  A  Chinaman 
wishing  to  emigrate  from  his  own  country  to  California 
will,  in  most  cases,  borrow  money  for  his  expenses,  paying 
interest  at  from  four  to  eight  per  cent,  a  month  ;  giving  a 
mortgage  on  his  wife  and  children  for  security,  and  until 
this  money  is  repaid  he  is  bound  to  the  company,  and  goes 
hither  and  thither  at  its  beck  and  call.  In  addition  to  the 
cost  of  his  voyage,  he  is  required  to  pay  seventy-five  dollars 
to  the  company  as  its  commission.  In  return  for  this 
commission,  the  company  exercises  a  general  supervision 
and  care  over  each  individual,  not  only  rinding  him  employ 
ment,  but  caring  for  him  in  sickness  and  misfortune. 

When  the  company  is  fully  repaid,  the  immigrant  is  pre 
sumably  free,  but  is  not  so  in  fact.  Every  Chinaman  hopes 
to  return  sooner  or  later  to  his  own  country,  or  at  least  to 
have  his  remains  laid  beside  those  of  his  ancestors  ;  but 
the  Six  Companies  have  made  arrangements  with  the 
steamship  companies  by  which  no  Chinaman,  alive  or  dead, 
can  be  transshipped  without  their  consent.  More  than  this, 
the  great  majority,  being  directly  indebted  to  the  com 
panies,  work  for  the  interests,  real  or  imagined,  of  their 
creditors,  and  a  Chinaman  fares  hard  indeed  at  the  hands 
of  his  own  people,  if  he  is  found  to  be  recalcitrant.  What 
ever  name,  therefore,  may  be  given  to  the  relation  of  the 
Chinese  to  their  employers,  they  are  neither  more  nor  less 
than  servile  to  the  last  degree. 

Another  result  that  has  been  observed  to  flow  from  this 
is  the  constantly  increasing  arrogance  on  the  part  of  em 
ployers,  a  fault  cultivated  and  encouraged  by  the  patient 
and  absolute  servility  of  the  Chinese  laborer. 

It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  with  wages   depressed 


Il  THE   CHINESE, 

below  the  point  of  comfortable  living,  and  with  labor 
debased  to  the  social  depths  of  an  Asiatic  community, 
California  has  not  increased  in  white  population  in  anything 
like  the  ratio  of  other  States  less  favored  in  climate  and 
natural  productions,  and  has  materially  diminished  in  that 
distributive  wealth  which  is  the  only  solid  foundation  for 
the  material  prosperity  of  a  commonwealth.  I  know  that 
it  is  claimed  that  the  aggregrate  wealth  of  the  State  has  been 
increased  by  Chinese  labor,  but  the  evidence  does  not  bear 
out  the  assertion.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
prove  that  the  State  is  actually  poorer  to-day  than  she 
would  have  been  had  the  Chinese  never  passed  the 
Golden  Gate.  More  than  this,  it  is  easy  to  show  that 
the  wealth  of  the  State,  even  apart  from  that  included 
in  the  land,  has  been  principally  accumulated  in  the 
hands  of  a  few,  while  the  mass  of  the  people  has  been 
impoverished. 

Nor  is  this  all:  the  low  rates  of  wages  required  by  the 
Chinese,  combined  by  their  docility  under  authority,  render 
them  facile  instruments  of  indirect  coercion  in  differences 
between  labor  and  capital.  Thus  introduced  as  an  abnor 
mal  element  into  a  problem  sufficiently  difficult  of  solution 
without  it,  Chinese  cheap  labor  too  often  renders  impos 
sible  the  normal  and  proper  adjustment  of  such  difficulties; 
and  the  evil  effects  are  felt,  not  merely  in  special  industries 
but  to  a  great  extent  throughout  the  body  politic.  Fre 
quently,  indeed,  it  has  led  to  results  which,  however 
regrettable  in  themselves  as  separately  considered,  are  but 
the  tokens  of  a  righteous  indignation  over  a  condition  of 
affairs  which  a  sound  and  well-regulated  public  policy 
would  not  permit  to  exist.  For  ten  years  past  not  less  than 
one  thousand  Chinese  have  been  employed  in  the  coal 
mines  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  and  the  employment 
that  would  have  sustained  a  thousand  Caucasian  families 
has  been  kept  beyond  their  reach.  Prior  to  the  occurrences 
at  Rock  Springs,  Colorado,  in  1885,  hundreds  of  white  men 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  119 

sought  in  vain  for  work,  while  Chinamen  were  imported  by 
the  carload. 

We  may  go  further,  and  assert  with  perfect  truth  that 
even  the  cities  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  are  poorer  by 
many  millions  than  they  would  have  been  had  California 
been  dependent  upon  white  labor  alone.  That  State  has 
lost  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  the  increase  of  white 
population  that  would  have  inured  to  her  had  she  presented 
the  attraction  of  high  wages  to  the  thrifty  mechanics,  farmers 
and  laboring  men  of  the  Eastern  States.  And  during  the 
same  period  she  has  lost  the  refinements  in  tillage  and  the 
enterprise  in  commercial  undertakings  that  she  would  have 
experienced  had  her  immense  ranches  been  divided  into 
smaller  farms,  as  they  would  have  been  had  not  the  Chinese 
furnished  vassals  for  their  wholesale  cultivation. 

If  agriculture  has  lost  from  cheap  labor,  commerce  has 
not  gained.  It  has  been  asserted  that  our  trade  with  China 
has  been  promoted  by  the  presence  of  the  Chinese.  But  if 
we  analyze  this  we  shall  find  it  as  delusive  as  the  others. 
Out  of  perhaps  twenty  millions  of  dollars  of  imports, 
thirteen  millions  are  in  tea  and  silk  which  would  be  im 
ported  to  the  same  degree  if  there  were  no  Chinese  on  the 
coast  ;  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  most  of  the  other 
imports,  a  very  large  proportion  of  which  is  consumed  by 
the  Chinese  themselves,  as,  for  example,  two  million  dollars 
of  rice,  three  hundred  thousand  of  fire-crackers,  and  one 
million  dollars,  more  or  less,  of  opium.  Of  the  balance, 
some  three  or  four  millions  of  dollars,  it  is  difficult  to  see  in 
what  respect  it  owes  its  existence  to  Chinese  immigration. 
It  consists  of  such  items  as  oil  of  aniseseed,  cassia-buds, 
china  ware,  camphor  and  cassia,  all  of  which  find  a  con 
siderable,  if  not  their  greatest,  market  in  the  Eastern  States, 
and  would  be  called  for  regardless  of  the  character  of  the 
population  on  the  Pacific  coast.  On  the  other  hand,  our 
exports  amount  to  between  ten  and  eleven  millions,  leaving 
a  balance  of  trade  against  us  of  apparently  about  nine  and 


120  THE   CHINESE, 

a  half  millions,  but  which  in  reality  is  about  seventeen 
millions  ;  for  more  than  seven-tenths  of  our  so-called  ex 
ports  to  China  consist  of  treasure  which  is  listed  with 
the  merchandise.  This  seventeen  millions  in  coin  and  its 
equivalent  passes  to  China,  and  thence,  in  payment  for 
opium,  to  t'  British,  to  form  part  of  the  fund  with  which 
their  power  is  maintained  in  the  East.  About  one  million 
dollars  of  our  exports  consist  of  quicksilver,  and  another 
million  of  sundries.  The  export  of  flour,  about  which  so 
much  has  been  said,  amounts  to  only  thirteen  or  fourteen 
thousand  barrels  per  annum  ;  of  coal,  about  fifteen  thou 
sand  tons  ;  and  of  lumber,  about  two  million  feet,  having  a 
value  of  some  fifty  thousand  dollars.  There  is  not  enough 
in  this  showing  to  indicate  any  great  or  permanent  advan 
tage  to  this  country  from  the  continuance  of  commerce 
with  China. 

Indeed,  the  impossibility,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  of 
any  profitable  market  for  American  products  in  China  is 
manifest.  We  cannot  sell  flour  to  a  population  that  prefers 
rice  to  wheat  and  which  raises  rice  in  kind  and  quantity 
unexcelled  anywhere  in  the  world.  We  cannot  sell  im 
proved  machinery  to  a  country  whose  people  and  govern 
ment  foresee  that  its  introduction  would  destroy  established 
industrial  usages  and  throw  tens  of  millions  of  already 
half-starving  laborers  wholly  out  of  employment.  We  can 
not  sell  leather  to  a  population  that  makes  its  foot-gear 
with  cloth  uppers  and  wooden  soles.  We  cannot  export 
sugar  to  distant  countries  while  we  import  it  for  ourselves, 
nor  can  we  sell  the  products  of  the  dairy,  or  of  the 
shambles,  to  a  people  to  whom  the  price  of  four  ounces  of 
either  is  more  than  the  value  of  a  whole  day's  work  from 
dawn  to  sunset.  It  has  been  said  that  China  affords  a 
market  for  our  cotton  goods.  The  averment  is  a  fair  illus 
tration  of  the  utter  rot  that  has  been  inculcated  with 
reference  to  our  commercial  relations  with  that  country. 
Jf  China  could  purchase  to  any  material  extent  the  "  brown 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  1 21 

sheetings  "  and  other  cotton  fabrics  of  other  countries,  the 
cheaper  looms  of  Great  Britain  would  supply  them.  But  as 
a  matter  of  fact  these  have  been  unable  to  compete  with  the 
cheap  labor  and  the  rude  hand-looms  in  the  cottages  of  the 
Chinese  operatives.  In  the  words  of  a  British  consul  at 
Shanghai:  "  Roughly  speaking,  the  working  classes  all  over 
China  are  still  clothed  entirely  with  native  fabrics  manufac 
tured  from  native  grown  cotton  ....  The  great  obstacle 
to  China's  becoming  a  consumer  of  English  fabrics  to  the 
extent  that  the  enormous  size  of  the  country  and  its  swarm 
ing  population  would  lead  one  to  anticipate  is  ....  the 
fact  that  she  herself  can  produce  an  article  of  more  dura 
ble  quality,  and  better  suited  to  the  wants  of  the  people,  at 
an  equal  or  lower  cost  ....  So  long  as  the  native  looms 
continue  to  produce  cloth  at  the  same  cost  as  at  present, 
our  manufacturers  cannot  seriously  enter  into  competition 
with  it  for  the  supply  of  the  wants  of  the  million."  Another 
consular  report  sets  forth,  of  the  cotton  manufacture  in 
Tsze  Chuen,  "  As  the  people  count  nothing  for  their  time 
or  labor,  everything  which  the  cotton  cloth  realizes  over  the 
cost  of  the  raw  material  is  reckoned  profit."  No  greater 
fallacy  was  ever  whispered  into  the  ear  of  a  credulous  pub 
lic  than  the  idea  that  China  may  afford,  to  any  material 
degree,  a  market  for  the  productions  of  American  labor  or 
skill. 

But  the  story  is  not  yet  fully  told.  There  are  in  San 
Francisco  fifteen  or  twenty  Chinese  firms  through  whom 
the  most  of  the  trifling  commerce  which  we  have  with 
China  is  transacted,  and  its  profit  goes  not  to  our  people, 
but  to  the  Chinese,  whose  allegiance  is  to  their  own 
country,  and  whose  wealth  is  part  of  the  wealth  of  China. 
The  riches  that  have  been  accumulated  through  Chinese 
labor  have  been  amassed  by  the  few,  and  have  contributed 
nothing  to  the  prosperity  of  the  masses.  It  is  not 
twenty  years  since  the  Pacific  Railway  was  built  with 
subsidies  from  the  Federal  and  the  State  governments, 


122  THE   CHINESE, 

and  even  of  counties  along  the  line.  The  cost  of  building 
the  road^was  based  upon  estimates  of  the  ruling  rates  of 
white  labor.  Upon  these  estimates  the  appropriations  and 
subscriptions  were  made.  When  the  work  was  undertaken, 
instead  of  employing  the  workingmen  of  the  country,  the 
projectors,  through  the  Six  Companies,  obtained  ten  thou 
sand  coolies  direct  from  China,  and  with  these  the  road  was 
built.  But  the  profits  went,  not  to  the  community,  but  to 
the  few  bold  business  men,  whose  wealth  dazzles  the  eye 
and  inflames  the  imagination.  And  this  wealth,  obtained 
in  this  manner,  and  concentrated  in  a  mere  fraction  of  the 
population,  has  been  prejudical  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
State,  for  it  has  been  used  from  the  beginning  to  perpet 
uate  the  abnormal  conditions  through  which  it  was  first 
obtained. 


XXIV. 

CHINESE     CHEAP     LABOR     ON    THE    PACIFIC    COAST     AFFECTS 
INDUSTRIES  EVEN  TO  THE  ATLANTIC  SEABOARD. 

THE  results  of  the  cheap  labor  of  the  Pacific  coast  have 
not  been  limited  to  that  region,  but  have  come  in  direct 
competition  with  the  labor  of  the  eastern  portion  of  our 
country.  For  the  laboring  man,  who  is  accustomed  to  the 
standard  of  life  in  the  East,  cannot  work  and  keep  his 
strength  on  the  low  wages  of  the  Chinese.  And  whenever 
the  products  of  his  labor  have  come  in  competition  with 
those  of  Chinese  labor,  they  have  been  lowered  in  price, 
and,  as  an  inevitable  result,  his  wages  have  been  reduced 
in  proportion.  Fifteen  years  ago,  California  sent  forty 
millions  of  dollars  annually  to  the  Eastern  States  in  pay 
ment  for  manufactured  products  ;  to-day  the  California 
market  is  practically  closed  to  Eastern  manufactures, 
because  Chinese  labor  produces  them  at  lower  prices 
than  is  possible  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  In  propor- 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  123 

tion  as  the  demand  for  the  results  of  labor  in  the  East 
diminishes,  just  in  the  same  degree  must  the  wages  of  the 
laborer  in  the  East  be  reduced  ;  and  unless  this  tendency 
is  stopped  by  legislation,  both  as  concerns  the  East  and 
the  West,  it  must  continue  with  constantly  increasing  force 
until  white  labor  is  driven  to  degradation  or  revolution. 

But  the  tendency  referred  to  has  gone  even  further  than 
I  have  indicated.  We  have  seen  that  the  hop-yards  of 
California,  some  of  them  forty  and  fifty  acres  in  extent, 
are  picked  by  Chinese  whose  wages  are  so  low  as  to  afford  a 
virtual  bounty  upon  the  product  as  against  that  of  east 
ern  hop-yards.  In  other  words,  the  agriculturist  on  the 
farms  of  New  York,  whether  he  works  for  wage,  or  tills 
with  his  own  hands  lands  which  he  owns  in  fee  simple, 
must,  under  the  merciless  operation  of  supply  and  demand, 
labor  in  direct  competition  with  Chinese  whose  wages  are 
but  a  fraction  of  what  the  American  requires  for  the  merest 
livelihood.  Under  our  treaty  with  Hawaii,  her  sugars  have 
been  admitted  free  of  duty,  and  American  producers  have 
had  to  contend  against  the  cheap  labor  of  the  Chinese 
coolies  who  already  exceed  the  total  native  adult  popula 
tion  of  the  Islands. 

It  is  known  that,  since  years  ago,  the  tobacco  of  Connecti 
cut  has  been  shipped  to  California,  there  made  into  cigars 
by  Chinese  operatives,  and  then  returned  to  the  eastern 
markets  ;  so  that  the  cigarmakers  of  New  York,  Boston 
and  Philadelphia  are  brought  into  the  same  direct  competi 
tion  with  Chinese  labor  as  those  of  the  Pacific  coast.  As 
concerns  many  branches  of  manufacture,  this  would  occur 
even  if  Chinese  immigration  was  restrained  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  But,  as  we  all  know,  the  Chinese  have 
penetrated  to  every  large  city  in  the  country.  They  swarm 
in  Brooklyn,  and  have  their  own  "  Chinese  quarter  "  locally 
known  as  "  Chinatown."  In  New  York  City  there  are,  in 
round  numbers,  about  fifteen  thousand  of  them  who,  like 
their  brethren  in  California,  take  the  work  ordinarily  done 


124  THE    CHINESE, 

by  women  and  children.  Here  as  there  they  are  without 
families,  and  here  as  there  they  live  in  the  same  cheap 
squalor  and  comfortable  debasement.  It  is  keeping  within 
bounds  to  say  that  for  each  Chinaman  who  follows  the  oc 
cupation  of  "  washee-washee  "  in  this  country,  a  family  of 
a  washer-woman  with  four  children  loses  its  means  of  sub 
sistence  and  sinks  to  deeper  depths  of  poverty. 

It  may  be  asked  why,  with  these  facts  staring  the  investiga 
tor  in  the  face,  so  strong  a  public  opinion  as  has  heretofore 
been  manifest  should  have  been  produced  or  maintained  in 
favor  of  Chinese  immigration.  The  answer  is  easily  found. 
California  is  in  a  great  measure  ruled  by  railroads  whose 
builders  made  fortunes  through  Chinese  labor.  The  Pacific 
Mail  Steamship  Company  has  its  vessels  manned  with  Chi 
nese  sailors,  and  makes  its  profits  from  the  transport  of 
Chinese  coolies,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  in  close  affiliation 
with  the  Chinese  companies  through  whom  the  immense 
flood  of  Asiatic  laborers  has  flowed  into  the  country.  The 
American  consular  charges  in  China  have  been  from  one 
to  two  dollars  per  head  for  every  Chinaman  shipped  ;  and 
all  the  official  weight  of  the  American  representatives  at 
Hong-Kong  has  been  thrown  in  favor  of  the  trade.  And 
every  large  manufacturer  and  great  land-owner  who  has 
found  the  profits  of  the  ranch  or  the  manufactory  enhanced 
through  the  reduction  of  wages  to  the  lowest  point,  has 
joined  in  laudation  of  cheap  labor.  To  so  great  an  extent 
has  the  fabrication  of  a  public  opinion  in  favor  of  the  Chinese 
been  carried,  that  after  the  death  of  Senator  Morton  it  was 
widely  reported,  and  almost  as  widely  believed,  that  he  had 
left  in  his  own  handwriting  a  report  in  laudation  of  Chinese 
labor  and  advocating  its  continuance  ;  whereas  Senator 
Morton  joined  with  the  other  members  of  the  committee  in 
declaring  that  "  the  influx  of  the  Chinese  is  a  standing  men 
ace  to  republican  institutions  upon  the  Pacific  and  the  exist 
ence  there  of  Christian  civilization,"  and  regarding  the  pres 
ent  industrial  condition  of  California  arising  from  Chinese 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  125 

labor,  used  the  following  language  :  "  The  Chinese  have 
advantages  which  will  put  them  far  in  advance  in  the  race 
for  possession.  They  can  subsist  where  the  American  would 
starve.  They  can  work  for  wages  which  will  not  fur 
nish  the  barest  necessities  of  life  to  an  American."  This 
committee,  of  which  the  senator  was  one,  and  in  whose  re 
port  he  joined,  spoke  of  the  Chinese  as  making  their  way 
"  by  revolting  characteristics  and  by  dispensing  with  what 
would  be  mere  necessities  in  modern  civilizations."  Yet  in 
spite  of  this  emphatic  language  the  pro-Chinese  advocates 
have  succeeded  in  spreading  the  current  belief  that  the  dis 
tinguished  senator  came  to  the  same  conclusion  as  them 
selves. 


XXV. 

CHINESE  IMMIGRATION  IS  BUT  IN  ITS  INFANCY  UNLESS 
PROMPTLY  STOPPED  BY  LEGISLATION  VIGOROUSLY  CAR 
RIED  INTO  EFFECT. 

IT  has  been  supposed  by  many  that  Chinese  immigration 
has  reached  its  limit.  But  this  is  at  variance  with  what  is 
plainly  indicated  by  demonstrated  facts.  Although  many 
Chinese  return,  each  autumn,  to  their  own  country,  a  still 
larger  number  make  their  advent  in  the  spring  ;  the  annual 
surplus  of  immigrants  over  emigrants  being  from  eighteen 
thousand  to  twenty  thousand,  which  insures  a  constant  in 
crease  of  the  Chinese  population.  I  am  aware  that  it  is 
claimed  that  the  Restriction  Act  of  1881  has  materially 
diminished  this  annual  ratio  of  Chinese  immigration.  But 
in  the  face  of  such  assertions  is  the  undeniable  fact  that  the 
provisions  of  the  law  have  been  evaded  wholesale  and  suc 
cessfully.  It  does  not  admit  of  contradiction  that  the 
strongest  opposition  to  the  Chinese  shown  by  the  people  of 
the  Pacific  Coast  has  been  manifested  since  the  passage  of 
this  act,  and  this  furnishes  strong  persuasive  evidence  that 


126  THE   CHINESE, 

the  act  itself  is  inefficient  and  incomplete.  Moreover,  the 
evasion  and,  in  many  cases,  the  practical  nullity  of  the  law, 
is  a  matter  of  notoriety.  As  already  stated,  the  Chinese 
constitute  one-sixth  of  the  people  of  the  State  ;  their 
number  above  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand.  This 
figure  is  an  average  of  various  estimates,  and  is  undoubtedly 
below  the  actual  number,  inasmuch  as  the  Chinese  are  most 
ingenious  in  evading  any  accurate  enumeration.  In  1886, 
it  was  stated  by  Lee  Kin  Wah,  the  president  of  the  Six 
Companies,  that  outside  of  San  Francisco  there  were  one 
hundred  thousand  Chinese  in  the  State  of  California.  If 
this  be  true,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  it,  the  total 
number  on  the  Pacific  Coast  cannot  be  less  than  two  hun 
dred  thousand,  for  even  in  1876  the  city  of  San  Francisco 
harbored  sixty  thousand,  and  the  number  assuredly  has  not 
diminished. 

We  may  here  pause  for  a  curious  calculation.  There  are 
only  between  five  and  six  thousand  Chinese  females  in  the 
State  ;  and  the  Chinamen  are,  therefore,  almost  without 
exception  men  without  families.  Each  one  of  them  is 
inspected,  before  leaving  China,  with  a  care  equal  to  the 
inspection  of  volunteers  for  active  service  in  time  of  war. 
Without  this  they  cannot  be  shipped.  They  are  therefore 
healthy,  active  and  enduring — as  much  so,  probably,  as  the 
average  military  force  of  any  country.  As  concerns  the 
white  community,  the  number  of  men  fit  to  bear  arms  may 
be  estimated  by  the  same  rule  that  obtains  in  European 
countries,  which  is  one  in  five  of  the  total  population- 
Therefore,  of  the  six  hundred  thousand  whites,  there  may 
be  counted  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  capable 
of  actual  service.  From  this  it  follows  that,  in  the  number 
of  men  fit  to  bear  arms  in  California  to-day,  China  is  at  least 
thirty  per  cent,  stronger  than  the  United  States.  We  may 
readily  infer  whether  this  proportion  is  likely  to  increase, 
when  we  consider  the  low  cost  at  which  Chinese  immigrants 
can  be  brought  to  the  Pacific  coast.  The  charge  per  head 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  127 

for  bringing  coolies  on  a  steamship  is  variously  stated  ; 
sometimes  as  high  as  fifty-five  dollars  by  the  advocates  of 
Chinese  immigration,  sometimes  as  low  as  ten  dollars  by 
its  opponents.  The  truth  appears  to  be  that  the  actual 
rate  of  the  steamship  company  is  about  thirty  dollars  from 
Hong-Kong  to  San  Francisco,  and  about  ten  dollars  on  the 
return.  I  find  in  a  sworn  statement  made  by  an  expert  in 
the  business,  that  in  sailing  vessels  the  Chinese  can  be 
brought  to  California  for  fifteen  dollars  each. 

In  times  of  steamship  rivalry  the  rates  have  been  reduced 
as  low  as  twelve  dollars  per  head.  The  emoluments  of  the 
business  of  importing  Chinese  may  be  estimated  from  the 
fact,  sworn  to  before  a  Congressional  committee,  that  from 
two  trips  per  year  a  steamship  makes  about  ninety-six 
thousand  dollars  gross  profit.  Even  the  dead  Chinaman 
pays  a  handsome  return  ;  his  last  wish  is  to  be  buried  in  the 
consecrated  ground  where  his  ancestors  repose,  and  five 
dollars  is  the  price  for  conveying  his  bones  homeward  to 
the  flowery  land.  The  cupidity  of  transportation  lines  of 
course  meets  half-way  the  wishes  of  the  would-be  emi 
grant,  and  employs  well-understood  means  to  stimulate 
his  desire  to  better  his  fortunes  in  the  New  World.  Un 
der  such  conditions  there  can  be  no  check  to  the  immi 
gration  except  through  stringent  legislation  vigorously 
enforced. 

Inducements  such  as  have  been  herein  just  referred  to, 
in  the  face  of  a  careless  public  opinion,  have  borne  their 
natural  fruits.  The  treaty  relating  to  the  importation  of 
Chinese,  and  the  legislation  had  in  pursuance  thereof,  has 
been,  in  a  great  measure,  a  dead  letter,  and  instead  of  stop 
ping  the  evil  has  permitted  it  to  increase  sub  rosa,  by  lulling 
anti-Chinese  sentiment  into  a  false  security.  The  collusion 
of  officials  has  aided  the  evasion  of  the  law  ;  thousands  have 
crept  into  the  country  under  color  of  false  certificates,  and 
other  thousands  have  passed  unhindered  across  the  border 
from  the  British  dominions,  a  British  trans-Pacific  steam- 


128  THE    CHINESE, 

ship  company   doing  for  the    port  of  Victoria   what   the 
Pacific  Mail  does  for  San  Francisco. 

From  November  17,  1880,  to  August  5,  1882,  "the  ar 
rivals  of  Chinese  by  steamer  alone  at  San  Francisco  reached 
forty-five  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-five ";  a  fair 
index  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Chinese  have  been 
crowded  into  the  country.  In  the  words  of  a  leading  New 
York  city  journal,  "  the  immigration  has  scarcely  diminished 
at  all  since  the  policy  of  restriction  was  put  in  force."  It 
is  impossible  to  state,  even  approximately,  the  number  of 
Chinese  in  the  United  States,  or  their  annual  increase  here  : 
and  the  figures  I  have  given  on  this  head,  though  taken 
from  the  best  available  data,  are  more  than  likely  to 
represent  but  a  fraction  of  the  whole.  Another  promi 
nent  New  York  newspaper  avers  that  at  the  present 
time  the  Chinese  enter  the  country  sometimes  at  the  rate  of 
a  thousand  per  day.  It  is  as  impossible  to  deny  as  it  is  to 
verify  these  sayings,  for  at  the  best  only  an  estimate  can  be 
made.  The  same  duplicity  that  favors  the  immigration 
contrary  to  law  covers  from  sight  the  sources  from  which  an 
exact  statement  of  its  extent  could  be  drawn.  The 
price  of  an  illegal  return  certificate  has  been  twenty  dollars 
for  a  man,  and  one  hundred  for  a  female — vide  New  York 
papers  of  April,  1888— '-and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
more  than  a  mere  fraction  of  the  frauds  committed  have 
been  discovered.  The  extent  to  which  the  Chinese  have 
increased  of  late  years  in  even  small  and  comparatively  out 
of  the  way  places  is  illustrated  by  the  population  of  Vic 
toria,  which,  with  eight  thousand  whites  of  all  ages  and  sexes, 
has  three  thousand  Chinamen.  Practically  the  whole  value 
of  the  restrictive  treaty  with  China  has  been  to  avoid 
undue  irritation  to  the  self-respect  of  her  government,  a 
result  right  and  proper  in  itself,  and  tending  to  the  elimi 
nation  of  a  source  of  possible,  though  minor,  annoyance  in 
carrying  into  effect  a  policy  of  repressing  Chinese  immigra 
tion.  In  like  manner  the  practical  value  of  all  anti-Chinese 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  129 

legislation  heretofore  enacted  has  been  incidental  rather 
than  positive  or  direct.  It  has  tended  in  the  right  direc 
tion,  is  evidence  of  an  appreciation  by  the  public  of  the  ne 
cessities  of  the  times,  and  serves  as  a  precedent  for  further 
and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  more  effective  laws,  but  it  has  fallen 
far  short  of  what  was  expected  and  desired.  Chinese  im 
migration  has  continued  and  increased,  and  the  promised 
relief  has  been  little  more  than  an  illusion.  And  this  in 
crease  in  Chinese  immigrants  has  been,  and  is,  common  to 
every  region  accessible  to  it,  and  raises  from  them  all  the 
same  protest.  Within  a  few  weeks  of  this  present  writing 
shiploads  of  Chinese  have  been  warned  from  the  ports  of 
Australia,  and  the  same  problem  is  met  in  the  same  spirit 
in  Australasia  as  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  our  own  country. 

The  recent  experience  of  Hawaii  is  of  interest  in  this 
connection.  In  1878  the  Chinese  population  of  the  Islands 
was  five  thousand  nine  hundred  and  sixteen.  In  five  years 
it  rose  to  sixteen  thousand.  In  February,  1884,  it  was 
seventeen  thousand  nine  hundred  and  thirty-seven,  of  whom 
only  eight  hundred  and  seventy-one  were  females.  In 
March  of  that  year  a  law  was  made  that,  aside  from  persons 
specially  admitted  by  passports  in  designated  cases,  no 
foreign  vessel  should  land  more  than  twenty-five  Chinese 
at  any  port  of  the  Islands,  and  in  February,  1886,  this  priv 
ilege  was  cancelled  and  the  government  definitely  adopted 
the  policy  of  putting  an  end  to  further  Chinese  immigra 
tion  altogether.  Of  the  Chinese  already  in  Hawaii,  about 
twenty  per  cent.  "  are  engaged  on  the  plantations  ";  the  re 
mainder  are  "  occupied  as  rice-planters,  gardeners,  shop 
keepers,  fishermen,  tailors,  boot  and  shoe  makers,  domes 
tics,  peddlers,  etc.,  and  in  various  other  pursuits."  The 
American  minister  at  Honolulu,  writing  in  1883,  informed 
our  State  Department  that  "  a  further  considerable  in 
crease  in  the  number  of  Chinese  laborers  would  assuredly 
hasten  the  destruction  of  the  native  people,  and  sooner  or 
later  render  it  difficult  for  the  Hawaiian  Government  to 


I36  THE   CHINESE, 

protect  the  great  foreign  interests  commercially  controlling 
the  islands." 

We  have  already  seen  the  conditions  under  which  the 
Chinaman  exists  at  home — the  pressure  of  poverty  and  pri 
vation  which  urges  him  to  emigrate.  We  have  also  seen 
how  he  carries  with  him  the  sordid  habits  to  which  he  has 
been  trained  from  infancy.  In  California  he  can  obtain  all 
that  his  habits  of  life  require  for  ten  cents  per  day.  What 
ever  he  earns  above  this  is  profit  clear,  to  be  saved,  and 
eventually  to  be  taken  to  China  when  he  returns.  Living 
at  this  rate,  competition  in  the  labor  of  Caucasians  can 
not  affect  him  to  any  measurable  degree,  for  the  rivalry 
that  would  bring  the  white  laborer  to  starvation  still  leaves 
the  Chinaman  a  margin  which,  compared  with  what  he  could 
make  at  home  is  wealth.  With  this  condition  of  affairs  well 
known  in  China,  as  it  most  assuredly  is,  and  with  a  merely 
perfunctory  operation  of  the  law  relating  to  exclusion,  it 
would,  indeed,  be  little  short  of  a  miracle  if  the  Chinese 
ceased  to  swarm  into  a  country  where  the  waste  thrown 
into  the  garbage-basket  is  often  better  than  the  fare  that 
gives  them  sustenance  at  home. 

Thus  far  I  have  considered  Chinese  immigration  princi 
pally  with  reference  to  its  results  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and 
but  incidentally  as  concerns  other  portions  of  the  country. 
The  subject  is,  however,  of  more  comprehensive  import  and 
to  be  received  in  a  broader  light.  The  influx  of  the  Chinese 
is  not  confined  to  the  region  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
It  has  extended  to  all  portions  of  the  country,  and  if  not 
subdued  will  sooner  or  later  come  into  direct  competition 
with  every  class  of  labor  in  every  State  and  Territory.  Thus 
various  elements  not  hereinbefore  considered  are  essen 
tial  to  the  proper  examination  of  the  subject.  It  becomes 
necessary  to  consider  the  existing  condition  of  the  pro 
ducing  classes  in  our  own  country,  the  extent  to  which  that 
condition  may  be  aggravated  by  the  inflow  of  cheap  labor 
of  races  kindred  to  our  own,  and  the  effect  of  Chinese  labor 


AND  THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  13* 

upon  a  large  percentage  of  our  population,  enfranchised 
by  the  late  war,  and  whose  welfare  cannot  be  ignored 
without  danger. 


XXVI. 

OUR  PRODUCING  CLASSES  CAN  BEAR  NO  GREATER  COMPE 
TITION  FROM  CHEAP  LABOR  THAN  THAT  FROM  CAUCA 
SIAN  SOURCES. — THE  CHINAMAN  VCt'SUS  THE  ITALIAN 
AND  THE  HUN. 

As  concerns  the  remuneration  of  labor,  our  country  is  no 
longer  the  paradise  it  was  in  former  years.  Agriculture  in 
the  Eastern  and  Middle  States  is  far  from  being  a  prosper 
ous  industry,  and  affords  but  modest  recompense  to  the 
laborer.  The  sharp  competition  of  life  in  large  cities  has 
introduced  conditions  of  existence  which  were  unknown 
thirty  years  ago,  and  which  are  as  serious  in  import  as  they 
are  novel  to  our  communities.  The  struggle  for  life  has 
introduced  female  effort  into  the  labor  field  to  an  extent 
undreamed  of  until  within  the  last  decade  ;  and  the  discon 
tent  of  the  working  classes  is  not  only  evidenced  by  colos 
sal  trade  and  labor  organizations,  but  is  justified  by  the  dis 
parity  between  earnings  and  the  cost  of  the  necessaries  of 
life.  These  latter,  with  the  Caucasian  workingman,  com 
prise  not  merely  the  means  of  physical  existence,  but  also 
many  other  things  which  the  requirements  of  civilization 
demand.  Even  if  there  were  no  other  factor  in  the  calcu 
lation,  this  alone  would  prove  that  the  introduction  of  Chi 
nese  labor  must  inevitably  lead  to  mischief.  Discontented, 
and  in  many  cases  justly  so,  with  existing  conditions,  the 
Caucasian  laborer  cannot  be  expected  to  bear  with  equa 
nimity  competition  with  the  new  element  of  labor  which  can 
support  itself  and  accumulate  property  at  rates  of  wages  in 
adequate  to  maintain  the  Caucasian  and  his  family  in  physi 
cal  health  or  to  sustain  even  the  strength  that  is  required 


132  THE   CHINESE, 

for  the  performance  of  labor.  To  this  must  be  added  the 
second  element  above  referred  to,  which  has  assumed  the 
most  notable  proportions  within  the  past  few  years,  viz., the 
introduction  of  an  entirely  new  class  of  immigrants,  com 
prising  the  Italian  and  the  Hun. 

At  this  point  the  query  may  be  made — and  superficial 
though  the  question  be,  it  is  entitled  to  a  fair  answer,  why 
do  not  the  same  objections  apply  to  the  Hungarian  and  the 
Italian  as  to  the  Chinese  ? 

Whatever  the  temporary  effect  of  the  new  class  of  Euro 
pean  immigration  referred  to,  and  that  it  must  have  an 
appreciable  effect  is  manifest  when  we  consider  that  an 
hundred  thousand  Italians  have  been  landed  in  New 
York  in  a  single  year,  there  is  behind  it  no  overwhelming 
population  such  as  urges  the  Chinese  to  pass  beyond  the 
bounds  of  their  own  country.  The  entire  population  of 
Italy  is  less  than  one-twentieth  of  that  of  China,  and  the 
density  of  its  population  is  but  a  fraction  of  that  of  the  lat 
ter  country.  A  similar  remark  applies  to  Hungary.  The 
excess  of  population  therefore  of  both  of  these  countries  is 
comparatively  light,  and  the  emigration  of  any  considerable 
percentage,  by  diminishing  the  laboring  population  at  home, 
will  tend  to  disturb  existing  conditions  and  thereby  produce 
a  reaction  tending  to  retain  the  producing  classes  in  their 
own  country.  This  is  especially  true  of  Italy,  whose  policy 
leans  to  the  concentration  of  her  surplus  population  in  de 
pendent  African  provinces,  which  may  add  in  many  ways 
to  her  national  strength.  The  matter  is  one  to  be  weighed 
in  a  practical  sense.  With  the  Italian  and  Hungarian  ele 
ment,  as  with  the  Irish,  German,  and  Scandinavian,  the  sup 
ply  is  not  likely  to  be  so  great  that  it  cannot  be  absorbed 
into  the  masses  of  our  own  people,  as  has  been  the  case  with 
every  other  class  of  immigration  from  Europe.  The  reser 
voir,  in  the  nature  of  things,  must  soon  become  exhausted 
to  the  limit  at  which  the  would-be  immigrant  will  be  required 
at  home  ;  whereas,  with  the  Chinese,  the  limitless  source  of 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  *33 

supply  is  overflowing  from  the  operation  of  causes  which 
the  laws  of  nature  itself  must  render  permanent.  The  one 
is  like  the  spring  freshet  of  some  of  our  mountain  streams, 
destined  in  due  course  to  diminish  to  slender  and  gentle 
flow  ;  the  other  is  like  the  swell  of  the  Yellow  River,  which, 
whether  its  waters  rise  or  fall,  keeps  ever  upon  its  surging 
and  sullen  course.  The  immediate  effect,  however,  of  Italian 
and  Hungarian  immigration  is  to  tend  to  increase  compe 
tition  in  labor,  and  to  this  extent  to  intensify  the  struggle 
for  existence  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  and  in  the 
same  ratio  the  new  source  of  Caucasian  labor  supply  affords 
a  further  reason  why  the  introduction  of  the  Chinese  should 
be  inhibited.  The  allegation  which  for  years  formed  the 
stock  argument  of  pro-Chinese  advocates,  that  the  cheap 
labor  of  the  Chinese  was  a  necessity  in  our  industries,  has 
no  longer  even  the  scant  shadow  of  a  shade  of  plausibility. 
All,  and  more  than  all,  the  demands  for  cheap  labor  from 
any  industry  is  met,  and  more  than  met,  from  races  cog 
nate  to,  and  easily  assimilable  with,  our  own. 

At  this  point,  no  doubt,  the  controversialist  may  ask,  why 
has  not  the  Chinese  the  same  right  in  this  country  as  the 
native  of  Hungary,  of  Sicily,  or  of  Naples  ?  This  query, 
though  superficial  as  the  other,  is  entitled,  like  the  other, 
to  a  fair  hearing  and  a  fair  answer. 

The  term  "  The  tribes  and  kindreds  of  the  earth  "  is  one 
not  without  meaning.  The  Italian — and,  though  in  a  less 
degree,  the  Hun — is  a  part  of  the  family  of  nations,  which, 
under  the  aegis  of  Christianity,  developed  civilization,  as  we 
understand  the  term.  The  former  is  kindred  to  us  through 
his  Aryan  lineage,  and  is  linked  to  us  by  his  share  in  the 
development  of  the  enlightenment  from  which  we  profit : 
his  language  is  one  of  a  cluster  that  sprang  from  a  common 
source  in  one  branch  of  the  Indo-Germanic.  Both  worship 
the  Jehovah  to  whom  our  temples  are  raised,  and  their 
thoughts,  however  crude  or  narrow,  run  parallel  with  those 
inherent  in  the  intellectual  progress  of  our  own  people. 


CHINESE, 

It  is  the  manner  in  which  Italian  and  Hungarian  im 
migration  has  been  conducted,  and  not  the  Italian  or  Hun 
garian  per  se,  which  is  objectionable.  No  immigrant — how 
ever  kindred  his  race  or  great  its  attributes  in  a  civilization 
correspondent  to  our  own — who  comes,  contract  ridden,  a 
mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  capital  in  its  strifes  with  labor, 
can  be  a  valuable  addition  to  our  population.  The  con 
tract  system,  which  regards  neither  the  welfare  of  the  im 
migrant  nor  the  well-being  of  the  land  to  which  he  comes, 
is  one  utterly  to  be  condemned  :  non  constat,  however,  that 
normal  immigration  from  Europe,  corresponding  to  that 
which  from  one  or  another  European  country  has  gone  on 
from  the  foundation  of  our  government,  is  to  be  discouraged. 
We  are  not  to  forget  that  the  European,  whatever  his 
country,  assimilates  readily  with  our  population,  and  the 
characteristics  most  dominant  in  his  people  are  capable  of 
enriching,  in  the  mingling  of  kindred  races  incident  to  the 
growth  of  ouj*  population,  the  character  of  our  own.  For 
it  is  by  the  admixture  of  races  of  European  origin  that  a 
distinctly  American  type  of  humanity  is  to  be  produced, 
moulded,  and  shaped,  within  near  generations,  under  the 
novel  conditions  and  broad  opportunities  of  a  new  world. 
A  depressed  and  half-forsaken  kinsman  the  Italian  or  the 
Hun  maybe,  of  the  stronger  and  thriftier  that  have  peopled 
our  country,  but  he  is  kinsman  nevertheless,  and  may  justly 
be  allowed  a  place  at  the  new  hearthstone  of  the  Caucasian 
race.  It  was  an  Italian  who  discovered  this  country  and 
opened  the  knowledge  thereof  to  our  ancestors,  and  it  is 
yet  within  the  memory  of  men  still  in  middle  life  that  the 
sympathies  of  our  people  went  forth  to  the  Hungarians  in 
their  struggle  for  a  national  existence.  The  selection, 
if  the  term  may  so  be  used,  of  the  incoming  peoples  wrho 
will  aid  in  the  settlement  of  our  country,  and  ultimately,  by 
their  fusion,  assist  in  producing  its  distinctive  population, 
must  be  from  the  dwellers  of  Europe  ;  from  the  sources 
from  which  our  civilization,  our  religious  beliefs,  our  social 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  135 

system,  and  our  political  institutions  have  been  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent  derived.  And  from  the  Norwegian,  who 
still  preserves  in  his  land  of  lake  and  mountain  the 
simplicity  and  freedom  of  an  early  democracy,  to  the 
Slavonian  who,  on  the  eastern  plains  of  Europe,  has 
guarded  the  frontiers  of  Christendom  for  a  thousand  years, 
and  southward  to  the  Mediterranean,  all  may  be  fitly  con 
ceded  the  privilege  of  sharing  the  New  World  subject  only 
to  our  laws,  the  binding  force  of  our  political  traditions, 
and  the  spirit  of  our  free  institutions.  All  are  pliant  and 
easily  moulded  to  new  conditions,  and  for  the  most  part 
melt  readily  into  our  population,  so  that  in  two  or  three 
generations  their  special  character  disappears.  But  with 
the  Chinese  no  such  rule  or  principle  applies.  Distinct, 
separate,  segregated,  in  all  things  alien  to  us  as  would  be 
the  inhabitants  of  another  world,  they  possess  none  of  the 
characteristics  which  render  possible  the  assimilation  of 
immigration  from  Europe — none  of  the  implied  rights, 
which  arise  from  kinship  in  historical  development,  in  blood 
or  faith. 


XXVII. 

THE      CHINAMAN     versus     THE     EMANCIPATED       NEGRO       OF 
THE    SOUTH. 

THE  further  phase  of  the  matter  under  consideration, 
viz.,  the  bearing  of  Chinese  cheap  labor  upon  the  welfare 
of  the  emancipated  negro,  is  one  that  has  not  received  the 
attention  that  its  importance  requires.  It  is  fortunate  that 
the  industrial  condition  of  the  Southern  States  has  not 
thus  far  been  such  as  to  invite  to  any  great  degree  the 
Chinese  to  active  competition  with  the  laboring  population. 
The  Chinese  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  have,  for  the  most 
part,  confined  themselves  to  the  large  cities,  although  one  of 
the  first  suggestions  made  by  advocates  of  Chinese  cheap 


I36  THE    CHINESE, 

labor  was  that  it  could  be  employed  to  advantage  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  staple  crops  of  the  South.  The  negro 
population  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war  aggregated  about 
three  and  one-half  millions  ;  at  a  moderate  estimate  it  is 
now  at  least  twice  as  great.  Before  the  war  its  normal 
increase  wras  five  per  cent,  per  annum,  as  stated  by  Calhoun 
in  a  Congressional  debate,  and  the  ratio  certainly  cannot 
have  been  less  under  the  favorable  conditions  of  freedom. 
The  negro,  although  his  wants  are  few,  has  been  unused  to 
privation.  He  has  grown  up  and  now  exists  under  condi 
tions  which  would  be  changed  for  the  worse  by  any  competi 
tion  in  the  labor  market  which  would  materially  reduce  what 
he  now  receives.  For  the  kind  of  labor  to  which  he  has  been 
trained,  and  for  which,  perhaps,  for  many  years  to  come,  will 
be  that  to  which  only  he  can  train  his  hand,  is  that  to  which 
the  Chinaman  would  most  readily  gravitate.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  differences  of  opinion  between  parties  in  past 
times — differences  that,  for  all  practical  purposes,  were 
settled  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago — concerning  the  status  of 
the  negro,  this  much  is  manifest  and  undeniable  :  that  the 
welfare  of  the  white,  as  well  as  the  negro,  would  be  most 
seriously  impaired  by  a  competition  that  would  virtually 
oust  the  negro  from  his  vocation  and  render  it  necessary 
for  him  to  plunder  or  to  starve.  This  is  no  exaggerated 
phrase.  With  ancestors  born  under  the  bounteous  skies  of 
the  tropics,  and  inheriting  from  them  the  necessities  of  a 
large  and  strong  physique,  used  to  the  abundance  of  the 
sub-tropical  regions  in  which,  as  the  result  of  Caucasian 
cupidity,  he  has  been  bred,  the  negro  can  no  more  subsist 
on  what  would  content  the  Chinaman  than  the  buffalo 
could  exist  on  wayside  thistles.  Drive  the  negro  from  the 
cane  and  cotton  field  by  the  competition  of  a  class  of 
laborers  who  will  work  for  less  than  will  afford  him  decent 
subsistence,  and,  with  no  gift  of  prophecy,  the  result  can 
be  inferred. 

Yet  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  South  can 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  137 

long  be  exempt  if  Chinese  immigration  continues,  as  it 
has  done  in  defiance  of  such  efforts  as  have  been  made  to 
prevent  it.  The  Chinese  in  California  kept  at  first  to  the 
cities,  but  soon  spread  over  the  whole  State,  and  indeed 
over  the  whole  Pacific  slope,  and  the  inland  regions  of 
Nevada  and  Colorado.  Silent  and  persistent  as  the  white 
ants  that  destroy  the  strongest  timbers  while  the  house 
holder  sleeps,  they  go  further  and  further  ;  and  where  they 
have  once  settled  there  they  remain. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

PERSISTENT    AND    INCREASING    INFLOW    OF  CHINESE    TO  ALL 
AVAILABLE  REGIONS. 

THE  insidious  increase  of  the  Chinese  population  in 
despite  of  all  antagonism  has,  indeed,  been  paralleled  when 
ever  the  race  has  once  obtained  a  foothold,  and  pecu 
liarly  pertinent  to  this  phase  of  the  question  is  the  fact 
that  the  Chinese  have  never  retraced  their  way  from  any 
region  where  they  have  once  established  themselves.  Once, 
it  is  true,  centuries  ago,  China  withdrew  from  conquests 
that  extended  almost  to  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  this  was 
done  voluntarily  in  order  to  avoid  possibilities  of  close  re 
lations  with  the  nations  of  the  west  ;  but  aside  from  this 
the  dragon  flag  has  never  been  more  than  temporarily 
lowered  from  any  country  where  it  has  once  been  planted. 
Time  has  been  within  the  past  few  hundred  years  when 
China  possessed  nothing  but  her  own  area,  the  Central 
Kingdom.  To-day  she  has  obtained,  either  by  peaceful 
acquisition  or  by  conquest,  the  control  of  the  countries  of 
Mongolia,  of  Mantchuria,  of  Eastern  Turkestan,  and  of 
Thibet  ;  and  her  population  is  swarming  into  Siam,  and 
some  portions  of  India,  while  Java  has  more  than  one  hun 
dred  thousand.  Even  the  wilds  of  Borneo  are  not  exempt, 
and  the  complete  control  of  Formosa  is  but  a  question  of 


I38  THE   CHINESE, 

time.  More  than  this,  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  the  first  for 
eign  land  to  feel  the  noxious  effects  of  Chinese  immigration, 
neither  statecraft  nor  slaughter  has  been  sufficient  to  up 
root  the  peaceful  invaders.  Nearly  three  hundred  years 
ago,  at  a  period  when  the  Spanish  residents  of  the  Philip 
pines  were  only  about  eight  hundred,  the  Chinese  numbered 
nearly  twenty  thousand.  A  well-founded  fear  on  the  part 
of  the  handful  of  Europeans  led  to  a  contest  in  which  the 
Spaniards,  provided  with  fire-arms,  succeeded  in  slaughter 
ing  nearly  the  whole  number  of  the  badly-armed  celestials. 
Yet  within  thirty  years  thereafter,  the  Chinese  population 
had  increased,  through  new  immigrations,  to  thirty-three 
thousand.  These  were  in  time  detected  in  fomenting  re 
bellion,  and  the  work  of  the  previous  generation  was 
repeated.  Fully  two-thirds  of  the  Chinese  were  destroyed. 
After  this,  legislation  limited  the  Chinese  in  the  islands  to 
six  thousand  ;  and  in  i7io  they  were  all  expelled,  and  trade 
with  China  was  prohibited.  But,  with  all  this,  it  has  been 
impossible  to  keep  them  away,  there  being  at  the  present 
time  about  ninety  thousand  Chinese  in  Manilla. 

The  meaning  of  these  incidents  in  the  history  of  Chinese 
emigration  is  emphasized  by  the  admitted  fact  that  the 
outflow  has  occurred  in  defiance  of  the  authorities  of  China, 
and  not  by  their  favor.  With  a  wise  forecast,  the  policy  of 
the  Government,  since  the  rise  of  the  western  powers,  has 
been  to  keep  the  empire  intact,  and  to  prevent,  so  far  as 
possible,  the  involution  of  its  people  with  those  of  other 
countries.  As  we  shall  see  further  on,  this  policy,  sound 
and  considerate  in  itself,  has  been  broken  down  only  by  the 
persistent  efforts  of  the  foreign  powers,  to  whom  our  own 
country  has  acted  as  deputy-assistant  in  no  very  dignified 
manner  or  degree.  The  enforcement  of  Chinese  law  has 
been  sufficient  to  restrain  the  inhabitants  of  the  interior 
from  seeking  a  foreign  outlet,  but  this  has  been  ineffectual 
as  concerns  the  outer  provinces.  The  Chinese  population 
on  our  Pacific  coast  is,  as  we  have  seen,  from  one  hundred 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION,  139 

and  fifty  thousand  to  two  hundred  thousand,  yet  all  of  these 
have  been  derived  from  an  area  of  but  fifteen  thousand 
square  miles,  embraced  within  the  province  of  Quang-tung, 
this  area  having  a  population  of  five  millions.  An  immi 
gration,  in  the  same  ratio  of  population,  from  the  entire 
Central  Kingdom,  would  launch  upon  the  Pacific  coast  a 
population  of  some  fifteen  millions.  But  so  great  and  so 
dense  is  the  population  of  China,  that  the  loss  of  these  mill 
ions  of  her  inhabitants  would  make  no  perceptible  change 
in  her  resources,  or  in  her  industrial,  social  or  political  con 
dition.  To  offset  the  temptation  to  immigrate  there  is 
nothing  but  the  natural,  but,  under  such  circumstances, 
easily-overcome  conservatism  which  makes  part  of  the 
character  of  the  people, — and  the  dislike  of  the  Chinese 
Government  to  the  infraction  of  a  traditional,  though  now 
much-weakened  policy. 

For  it  is  to  the  conservative  policy  of  the  Chinese  Govern 
ment,  and  to  this  alone,  that  the  western  coast  of  America 
thus  far  owes  even  its  comparative  immunity  from  the 
overwhelming  influence  of  Asiatic  immigration.  I  use  the 
term  "  comparative  immunity  "  advisedly.  If  China  en 
couraged  the  overflow  of  her  people  to  the  same  extent  that 
she  has  discouraged  it,  the  Chinese  question  would  have 
been  already  settled  beyond  recall.  Reverence  for  the 
wisdom  of  their  ancestors  in  binding  each  citizen  to  his 
native  land  by  indissoluble  ties,  has  until  lately  led  China 
to  maintain  a  policy,  the  results  of  which  have  been  even 
more  favorable  to  our  safety  than  conducive  to  her  own. 
As  we  have  seen,  China,  for  many  hundred  years,  dis 
couraged  the  immigration  of  her  people.  We  have  seen, 
also,  that  the  barriers  she  builded  to  shield  her  empire  were 
broken  down  by  force  and  fraud  in  which,  in  the  later  days 
at  least,  we  had  our  share.  We  have  seen,  too,  that  the 
Chinese  intellect,  the  Chinese  character,  is  strong,  vigorous, 
patient,  and  far-sighted  ;  and  that  as  diplomats  the  states 
men  of  China  have  held  their  own  with  those  of  every  other 


140  THE    CHINESE, 

nation  in  the  world.  This  people,  thus  constituted,  have 
now  reached  a  point  where  the  policy  of  four  thousand 
years,  if  not  manifestly  reversed,  is  shaken,  and  China,  in 
stead  of  standing  upon  the  defensive,  is  upon  the  verge  of, 
if  she  has  not  already  adopted,  an  aggressive  policy. 

The  signs  of  aggression  are  neither  few  nor  obscure.  As 
already  remarked,  on  her  own  coasts  and  in  neighboring 
regions  she  has  supplanted  the  enterprise  of  Europeans  and 
Americans.  This  process  is  now  being  extended  to  our 
own  country,  and,  if  continued,  will  soon  constitute,  upon 
the  Pacific  coast,  a  power  too  strong  to  be  overcome  by 
policy  or  war.  One  hundred  and  forty  thousand  of  Chinese, 
it  was  stated  on  apparently  good  authority,  had  already 
found  a  place  in  Cuba  eight  years  ago.  The  same  year 
witnessed  the  inauguration,  with  the  steamer  Hochung,  of 
direct  trade  in  Chinese  steam-vessels  between  Hong-Kong 
and  San  Francisco.  The  opportunities  afforded  by  a  favor 
able  public  opinion  and  thoughtless  governmental  action, 
both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  have  enabled  China  to 
avail  herself  of  the  latest  and  most  improved  resources, 
whether  for  peaceful  or  warlike  purposes.  Hundreds  of 
the  best  of  her  young  men  have  been  educated  in  Caucasian 
schools  ;  the  scientific  works  of  Europe  and  America  have 
been  translated  into  her  language  for  the  use  of  her  officials. 
Armories  have  been  established  on  Chinese  soil  for  the 
manufacture  of  improved  fire-arms  for  Chinese  troops. 
China  has  defeated  the  Russians  in  Kashgar  with  muskets 
from  the  arsenals  of  Europe,  and  has  mounted  Krupp  guns 
on  the  earthworks  that  guard  the  inlets  to  the  great  rivers. 
And  within  the  past  few  years  she  has  equipped  a  navy 
which,  with  the  single  exception  of  that  of  Great  Britain, 
carries  heavier  and  more  effective  ordnance  than  that  of 
any  other  nation  in  the  world.  And  it  is  this  nation — pos 
sessed  at  the  present  time  of  a  population  of  upwards  of 
seven  hundred  millions,  increasing  at  the  rate  of  one  per 
cent,  per  annum,  or  one  hundred  and  forty  millions  in 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  H* 

twenty  years — it  is  this  nation,  hemmed  in  on  all  sides, 
save  that  of  the  sea,  and  with  a  soil  that  has  already 
reached  the  limit  of  productiveness  for  its  people,  with  whose 
myriad  swarms  our  own  country  is  brought  face  to  face. 


XXIX. 

CHINESE    IMMIGRATION    SHOULD  BE  STOPPED    AND    THE  CHI 
NESE    ELEMENT    ELIMINATED    FROM    OUR    POPULATION. 

A  PEOPLE  of  a  type  the  least  complex,  and  consequently 
the  most  persistent,  on  the  face  of  the  globe  ;  having  the 
characteristics,  indurated  through  the  generations  of  five 
thousand  years,  to  which,  in  detail,  reference  has  herein 
been  made  ;  possessed  of  the  continually  accumulating 
power  of  a  population  equal  at  the  least  to  two-fifths  of  the 
total  of  the  human  race,  increasing  constantly  and  over 
flowing  its  own  regions  in  all  directions,  urged  forward  by 
famine  at  home  and  lured  by  the  promise  of  plenty  away; 
governed  morally,  socially,  and  politically  by  traditions 
immutable  almost  as  the  law  that  governs  the  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  tide,  and  in  each  and  all  at  variance  in  kind 
and  purpose  from  that  which  the  Caucasian  holds  highest 
and  best,  such  are  the  Chinese — such  is  the  race  that,  silent 
and  sinuous  as  the  waters  that  crept  through  the  reeds  of 
Kaifung  ere  they  deluged  the  three  thousand  villages  of 
Ho-Nan,  is  seeking  our  shores. 

Is  it  not  time  to  protect  ourselves  against  the  influx  of  such 
a  people,  the  commercial  enterprise  of  such  a  country,  the 
possible  aggressions  of  such  a  power  ?  But  in  what  way  shall 
the  inflow  be  stopped  and  its  reflux  be  secured  ?  Considered 
with  reference  to  the  formalities  and  technicalities  of  diplo 
macy,  the  subject  is  perhaps  not  free  from  complexity.  Ex 
amined  with  reference  to  expediency,  to  the  broad  equities 
which,  with  nations  as  with  individuals,  should  be  of  control 
ling  authority,  the  case  grows  comparatively  clear.  Sweep- 


MS  THE   CHINESE, 

ing  aside  all  sentimentality  and  all  technicalities  woven  by 
diplomacy,  or  rather  by  the  lack  of  it,  the  most  direct  method 
is  the  best.  The  amour propre  of  China  may  be  conciliated 
by  treaties,  and  her  friendly  offices  secured  by  a  just  and  hon 
orable  abstention  from  interference  with  her  internal  affairs. 
But,  as  we  shall  see,  her  best  wishes  and  possible  volition 
are  but  partial  factors  in  the  question.  Either  with  or 
without  her  assistance  Chinese  immigration  should  be 
stopped  by  all  the  power  of  the  government,  and  the  elimi 
nation  of  the  Chinese  from  our  borders  should  be  secured 
with  the  least  possible  delay.  And  preliminary  to  these, 
such  legislation  should  be  had  as  will  either  de  facto  or  de 
jure  abrogate  our  existing  treaty  relations  with  China,  so 
far  as  they  permit  Chinese  immigration  or  provide  for  the 
retention  of  the  Chinese  already  here. 

Notwithstanding  all  argument  to  the  contrary  this  would 
involve  no  breach  of  international  comity,  and  no  exercise  of 
authority  not  lawful  under  the  code  of  nations.  Nor  need 
the  remedy  involve  oppression  to  those  whose  exclusion 
is  essential  to  our  national  welfare.  Laws  the  most  severe 
and  rigorous  in  their  object  may  be  so  framed  as  to  prevent 
evasion  and  yet  temper  their  operation  to  a  minimum  of 
hardship.  The  Chinaman  is  alien  in  all  things  to  our  people 
and  our  institutions.  The  wealth  that  he  gathers — for  how 
ever  moderate  according  to  our  standard,  it  is  wealth  to 
him — is  garnered  to  be  carried  to  China,  not  destined  to  add 
to  the  accumulations  of  the  land  in  which  he  temporarily 
sojourns.  And  if  he  be  sent  back  before  his  harvest  is 
completed  he  may  still  congratulate  himself  that  he  is  richer 
than  if  he  had  not  visited  this  country  at  all.  So  much  for 
the  effect  on  the  individual.  From  the  standpoint  of 
international  polity,  China  can  have  no  cause  of  complaint 
if  we,  under  an  hundred-fold  the  provocation,  follow  the 
example  which,  age  after  age,  she  set  to  the  world.  If 
China  was  justified,  as  she  most  assuredly  was,  in  excluding 
foreigners  lest  her  internal  peace  and  prosperity  should  be 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  1 43 

impaired  by  their  craft  or  their  energy,  we  are  more  than 
justified  in  excluding  her  people  from  our  borders  now 
that  they,  by  their  presence,  do  us  harm  greater  than  any 
she  had  reason  to  fear  for  herself.  Of  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  China  is  the  last  that  can  reasonably  object  to  a 
policy  which  would  exclude  her  people  from  Caucasian 
countries — a  policy  which  would  tend  to  the  same  end  as 
her  traditional  one  of  keeping  her  people  at  home  ;  and 
which  would  imitate  her  example  in  eliminating  an  objec 
tionable  element  from  a  population  characterized  by  the 
necessities,  and  imbued  with  the  ideas,  of  an  entirely  differ 
ent  civilization. 

Theoretically,  during  the  past  eight  years,  the  aspect  of 
the  Chinese  question  has  changed  for  the  better.  Prac 
tically  and  in  fact  it  has  changed  for  the  worse.  On  the 
one  hand  the  Government  of  China  has  formally  acquiesced 
in  the  principle  of  exclusion,  and  a  possibly  irritating  in 
gredient  has  been  thus  eliminated  ;  the  necessity  of  exclu 
sion  has  become  so  apparent  that  Federal  laws  have  been 
passed  with  the  object  of  carrying  that  principle  into  effect, 
and  the  question  of  Chinese  immigration,  instead  of  being 
considered,  as  in  many  portions  of  the  country  it  was  but  a 
few  years  since,  as  a  matter  of  merely  local  import  to  Cali 
fornia,  is  rapidly  becoming  familiar  as  a  living  question, 
important  to  all  portions  of  the  country  and  to  every  ele 
ment  of  the  State.  On  the  other  hand  the  treaties  with 
China  have  been  so  framed  that,  while  keeping  to  the  letter, 
they  elude  the  spirit  of  our  requirements.  The  laws  have 
been  evaded  from  the  beginning,  and  judical  interpretation 
and  executive  performance  have  in  many  cases  fallen  far 
short  of  fulfilling  expectations  founded  on  the  acts  of  the 
legislature. 

The  first  act  passed  by  Congress  adverse  to  the  influx  of 
the  Chinese  was  in  1879,  and  was  the  slow  result  of  a  report 
made  several  years  before  of  a  Congressional  committee  that 
had  visited  the  Pacific  coast  to  investigate  the  effect  of 


144  THE   CHINESE, 

Chinese  cheap  labor  upon  its  industrial  population.  That 
report  had  deprecated,  in  the  most  vigorous  language,  the 
introduction  and  presence  of  the  Chinese.  It  set  forth 
that  Chinese  immigration  had  "  discouraged  and  retarded 
white  immigration  to  the  Pacific  States";  that  the  Chinese 
"  have  no  knowledge  of  or  appreciation  for  our  institutions  "; 
that  they  "  have  a  quasi  government  among  themselves  in 
dependent  of  our  laws";  that  the  "apparent  prosperity 
derived  from  the  presence  of  the  Chinese  is  deceptive  and 
unwholesome,  ruinous  to  our  laboring  classes,  promotive  of 
caste  and  dangerous  to  our  institutions  ";  and  that  "  their 
vices  are  corrupting  to  the  morals  of  the  city,  especially  of 
the  young."  That  report  further  set  forth  that  the  Chinese 
immigrants  "  can  subsist  where  the  American  would  starve  ; 
they  can  work  for  wages  which  will  not  furnish  the  barest 
necessities  of  life  to  an  American."  It  set  forth  that  they 
made  their  way  "  by  revolting  characteristics  and  by  dis 
pensing  with  what  had  become  necessities  in  modern  civil 
ization,"  and  that  as  they  "  have  no  families  to  support  or 
educate  they  are  able  to  compete  with  white  labor  in  all 
departments  and  exclude  it  from  employment  ";  and  that  in 
that  year,  1876,  the  Chinese  were  increasing  "more  rapidly 
than  the  other  adult  population  of  the  State."  The  facts 
thus  disclosed  were  beyond  cavil,  and  the  conclusions  to 
be  drawn  therefrom  were  indisputable.  In  the  face  of  these, 
however,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  vetoed  the  bill,  and  Chinese  immigration  went  on 
without  even  the  semblance  of  hindrance  during  two  years 
thereafter,  or  until  the  Act  of  1881  ;  the  latter  consequent 
upon  an  ameliorating  convention  with  China.  As  concerns 
this  convention,  no  objection  can  be  reasonably  made,  for 
the  wiser  method  in  diplomacy,  as  in  all  else,  is  that  which 
smoothes  asperities  and  respects  the  point-of-honor  inher 
ent  in  the  rights  of  governments  as  of  men.  Beyond  this, 
however,  the  treaty  itself  was  of  little  or  no  value  in  retard 
ing  the  influx  of  the  Chinese.  The  act  itself,  while  tending 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION. 

to  formulate  public  opinion,  has  been,  as  I  have  said,  and  as 
will  be  considered  further  on,  in  great  measure  frustrated. 
It  was  and  is  in  fact  an  opiate  rather  than  a  remedy.  It 
has  lulled  public  opinion  to  sleepy  carelessness,  while  the 
disorder  has  gone  on  all  the  more  dangerously  and  insidi 
ously  because  of  the  belief  that  a  check  had  been  applied. 


XXX. 

OUR  TREATY  RELATIONS  WITH  CHINA,  THEIR  LEGAL  BEAR 
ING  AND  EFFECT. RIGHT  AND  NECESSITY  OF  ABROGAT 
ING  OUR  CONVENTIONS  WITH  THE  CHINESE  GOVERNMENT. 

A  REGARD  for  treaty  obligations  was  stated  by  Mr. 
Hayes  as  the  reason  for  his  veto  of  the  bill.  His  language 
pronounced  the  treaty  with  China  to  have  the  force  of  a 
provision  of  the  Constitution.  Although  the  subsequent 
convention  with  that  country  and  the  progress  of  public 
opinion  has  measurably  eliminated  this  idea  from  discussion, 
it  is  one  likely  to  recur  at  any  time  when  new  legislation 
may  be  required.  For  this  reason  the  alleged  grounds  for 
the  veto  of  the  bill  referred  to  may  be  here  considered  in 
some  detail  as  not  only  proper  but  necessary  to  a  full  con 
sideration  of  the  legal  principles  involved.  The  same  para 
graph  of  the  Constitution  which  provides  that  treaties  made 
in  accordance  therewith  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land, 
also  declares  that  statutes  made  in  accordance  therewith 
shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  A  law  of  Congress, 
therefore,  stands  upon  the  same  level  and  has  the  same 
force  as  a  treaty  with  a  foreign  power.  From  this  it  fol 
lows  that  the  latest  manifestation  of  the  legislative  or 
treaty-making  power,  as  the  case  may  be,  must  prevail  over 
any  previous  action  of  converse  tenor,  and  a  Federal  stat 
ute  contrary  to  a  provision  of  a  treaty  necessarily  repeals 
the  treaty  itself.  This  is  sound  law  as  well  as  common 
sense.  In  order  to  secure  a  change  in  the  Constitution, 


146  THE   CHINESE, 

the  favorable  action  of  Congress  and  the  consent  of  three- 
fourths  of  the  legislatures  of  the  States  is  required.  When 
such  care  was  exercised  to  prevent  the  hasty  change  of  any 
of  the  provisions  of  the  organic  law,  it  cannot  have  been 
the  intent  of  its  framers  that  a  treaty,  entered  into  by  a 
single  plenipotentiary  and  ratified  by  the  President  and 
Senate,  should  have  a  power  binding  as  that  of  the  Consti 
tution  itself,  and  be  capable  of  disturbing  our  industrial, 
social,  and  political  equilibrium.  To  say  that  the  Senate 
and  an  envoy  appointed  by  the  President  possess  a  power 
greater  than  that  of  both  houses  of  Congress  and  the 
President  together,  is  to  reverse  the  principles  and  tradi 
tions  that  have  controlled  the  government  and  expressed 
the  will  of  the  people  from  the  beginning.  That  vigorous 
action  is  necessary  in  our  own  defence  is,  I  think,  clear  to  any 
one  who  will  carefully  investigate  the  facts  and  draw  con 
clusions  from  them  with  the  same  direct  logic  as  is  applied 
to  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life.  And  there  is  no  ground 
for  doubt  that  this  action,  to  be  effective,  should  not  be 
delayed. 

Our  treaty  with  China,  in  all  that  permits  the  presence 
of  the  Chinese  within  our  borders,  should  be  rescinded  ;  if 
with  the  consent  of  China  so  much  the  better  ;  for  such  a 
consent  on  her  part  could  well-be  met  on  ours  by  withdrawal 
from  the  entangling  alliances  with  foreign  diplomacy  at 
Pekin  which  have  made  us  so  often  the  mere  implements 
of  injustice  and  oppression  in  the  furtherance  of  European 
designs.  But  in  the  absence  of  cooperation  from  China, 
the  way  to  the  same  result  lies  open,  clear  and  manifest, 
upon  the  general  principle  that  the  exercise  of  inherent  con 
stitutional  power  through  legislation  alone  may  legally 
transcend  any  implied  or  direct  provisions  of  the  treaty. 
With  nations  as  with  men,  self-preservation  is  the  first  law 
of  nature,  and  the  primary  duty  of  the  sovereign  power  of 
the  state  is  the  protection  of  its  own  people. 

But  this  phase  of  the  matter  may  not  be  dismissed  with  a 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  147 

paragraph,  and  its  close  and  minute  examination  should 
not  be  forborne.  The  national  conscience  and  the  national 
dignity  demand  that,  in  an  international  controversy,  our 
people  should  show  as  clear,  a  cause  as  would,  in  the  case 
of  an  individual,  call  for  a  favorable  verdict  in  a  court  of 
equity.  What,  then,  are  the  legal  and  equitable  conditions 
involved  in  the  remedy  of  the  present  and  the  prevention 
of  the  impending  evil  ?  What  are  the  methods,  under  the 
forms  of  law  and  according  to  precedents  established  as 
just  between  nations,  by  which  the  policy  of  the  govern 
ment  may  be  reversed  and  the  immunity  of  our  people  from 
Asiatic  invasion  be  secured  ?  To  answer  this  query,  re 
quires  an  investigation  of  the  nature  of  treaties,  and  their 
scope  and  limitations  as  concerns  their  binding  force ;  of 
the  course  pursued  by  other  nations  in  similar  but  less 
momentous  exigencies  ;  of  the  precepts  of  our  own  political 
jurisprudence  ;  and  of  our  treaty  relations  with  China 
since  and  including  the  first  convention  entered  into,  forty- 
four  years  ago.  In  other  words,  we  are  now  led  to  a  con 
sideration  of  the  law  of  nations  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
matter  before  us. 

A  treaty  is  not,  as  pro-Chinese  advocates  apparently  be 
lieve,  a  contract  changeless  as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  and  binding  for  all  time,  no  matter  what  ruin  it 
may  entail.  It  is  an  agreement  entered  into  by  two  powers 
for  their  mutual  advantage  ;  and,  like  a  contract  between 
man  and  man,  depends  for  its  permanence  and  validity  upon 
equity  and  good  conscience.  Although  some  treaties — for 
example,  those  relating  to  boundaries — are  in  a  manner 
permanent,  as  they  revive  after  war  unless  modified  by 
subsequent  conventions,  yet  most,  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  are  transitory.  The  conditions  under  which  they 
are  made  change  or  disappear,  and  what  at  first  was  equita 
ble,  or  believed  to  be  so,  is  proven  by  the  lapse  of  time  to 
be  productive  of  harm.  Thus  it  is  that  while  some  treaties 
have  been  in  a  degree  enduring,  and  have  established 


148  THE   CHINESE, 

certain  principles  of  public  comity,  by  far  the  greater 
number  have  been  modified  from  time  to  time,  to  bring 
their  provisions  into  closer  concord  with  newly-developed 
ideas  of  national  safety  or  international  justice. 

This  fact  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  the  law  of 
nations  ;  without  it,  future  generations  might  be  chained 
and  mortgaged  by  their  predecessors,  and  have  no  recourse. 
Without  it,  a  people  might  be  ruined  by  the  mistakes  of 
a  vain  diplomatist,  the  treason  of  a  crafty  ruler,  or  the 
thoughtless  outburst  of  a  popular  enthusiasm.  It  is  not 
to  be  permitted  that  the  liberties,  the  prosperity,  the  evolu 
tion,  and  development  of  nations  should  be  arrested  by 
the  iron  weight  of  unchanging  and  unchangeable  treaties 
which,  under  verbal  forms,  might  place  the  industries  and 
the  social  and  political  interests  of  a  country  in  jeopardy, 
as  those  of  this  country  are  jeopardized  by  China  at  the 
present  time.  Hence,  a  treaty  which  tends  to  the  irreme 
diable  injury  of  one  of  the  contracting  parties  is  absolutely 
void  ;  it  has  no  place  in  the  law  of  nations.  This  is  and 
has  been  held  by  jurists  since  the  code  of  nations  was  first 
formulated,  as  the  highest  expression  of  human  law.  In 
the  words  of  Vattel,  whose  works,  during  a  hundred  and 
thirty  years,  have  been  the  guide  of  statesmen  and  diplo 
matists  :  "  A  treaty  pernicious  to  the  state  is  null,  and  not 
at  all  obligatory,  as  no  conductor  of  a  nation  has  the  power 
to  enter  into  engagements  to  do  such  things  as  are  capable 
of  destroying  the  state  for  whose  sake  the  government  is 
intrusted  to  him." 

And,  further,  not  only  may  no  treaty-making  power 
alienate  the  welfare  of  its  people,  but  it  is  contrary  to  the 
order  of  nature  and  the  well-being  of  humanity,  that  a 
nation  should  be  held  to  conditions  that  tend  to  its  over 
throw.  Says  the  same  writer  :  "  The  nation  itself  being 
necessarily  obliged  to  perform  everything  required  for  its 
preservation  and  safety,  cannot  enter  into  engagements 
contrary  to  its  indispensable  obligation."  In  like  manner 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  149 

Wheaton,  the  American  publicist,  whose  treatise  has  been 
an  authority  for  more  than  fifty  years,  and  which,  it  may  be 
remarked,  was  translated  into  the  Chinese  language  sixteen 
years  ago  for  the  use  of  the  Chancellerie,  expressly  holds 
that  "  a  total  change  of  circumstances  "  renders  a  treaty 
"  no  longer  obligatory."  And  the  venerable  Dr.  Woolsey, 
whose  volume  is  the  text-book  of  American  colleges,  uses 
on  this  head  language  stronger  even  than  that  of  Vattel. 
"  A  treaty,"  he  says,  "  in  which  the  treaty-making  power 
flagitiously  sacrifices  the  interests  of  the  nation  which  it 
represents,  has  no  binding  force.  In  this  case  the 
treacherous  act  of  the  government  cannot  be  justly  re 
garded  as  the  act  of  the  nation,  and  the  forms  ought  to 
give  way  to  the  reality  of  things." 

Let  us  consider  the  Burlingame  treaty  upon  the  prin-. 
ciples  elaborated  by  these  masters  of  juridical  learning, 
and  by  the  truths  that  spring  from  natural  law  as  well  as 
from  legal  lore.  That  treaty  in  its  direct  outcome  has  con 
vulsed  the  industries,  disturbed  the  political  condition,  and 
destroyed  the  social  balance  of  one  of  the  best  portions  of 
our  country.  It  has  arrayed  section  against  section,  and 
class  against  class.  It  tends  to  depress  the  laborer  to  vas 
salage,  and  to  elevate  the  great  landholder  to  almost  feudal 
power,  and  threatens  at  no  distant  day  to  deliver  one  of 
our  fairest  regions  to  the  sway  of  the  Mongolian,  and  to 
bring  to  the  eastern  portion  of  our  country  the  same  em 
bittered  relations  between  capital  and  labor,  employer  and 
employed,  that  have  agitated  the  people  of  California  and 
barred  the  way  of  progress  of  their  State.  Even  if  that 
treaty  is  otherwise  binding,  which  it  is  not,  and  even  if  there 
were  no  other  objections  to  its  validity,  and  there  are  many, 
its  pernicious  results  and  its  inherent  folly  should  insure  its 
immediate  and  absolute  abrogation.  Its  annihilation  falls 
clearly  within  the  provision  of  the  law  of  nations,  and 
would  be  more  than  justified  by  the  primary  law  of  self- 
preservation, 


150  THE   CHINESE, 

Nor  will  we  find  precedents  far  or  few.  History  is  full 
of  them.  Less  in  magnitude,  it  may  be,  but  in  ethics  and 
principle  the  same.  Three  hundred  and  eighty-two  years 
ago  the  States  General  of  France  compelled  their  king  to 
cancel  a  treaty  "  because  that  treaty  was  pernicious  to  the 
kingdom."  Less  than  four  decades  ago  the  same  country, 
under  the  Lamartine  administration,  after  the  flight  of 
Louis  Philippe,  made  solemn  declaration  that  "the  treaties 
of  1815  exist  no  longer  in  the  eyes  of  the  French  Repub 
lic."  In  1850  Great  Britain  invoked  war,  the  destroyer  of 
treaties,  and  blockaded  the  ports  of  Greece  because,  as  was 
alleged,  the  courts  of  that  country  "were  in  such  a  state 
that  justice  could  not  be  had  "  by  one  Pacifico,  a  British 
subject  whose  dwelling  had  been  sacked  to  the  extent  of 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  by  an  Athenian  mob.  And 
this  was  done  notwithstanding  the  rule  of  international  law 
under  which  Pacifico  should  have  exhausted  his  remedy  in 
the  Greek  tribunals  before  appealing  to  the  political  branch 
of  his  own  government.  The  action  of  the  United  States 
regarding  the  French  treaties  is  hereinafter  adverted  to. 
The  course  of  Russia  in  annulling  a  restriction  on  her  free 
dom  of  action  in  Eastern  Europe,  laid  upon  her  by  treaty 
stipulations  with  the  western  powers,  is  too  recent  to  require 
more  than  a  passing  mention. 

As  concerns  the  treatment  of  this  question  from  a  legal 
standpoint  by  our  own  Government,  we  have  to  bear  in 
mind  that  it  is  presented  in  two  aspects.  First,  the  legal 
right  of  Congress  to  repeal  a  treaty.  Second,  the  moral 
justification  for  such  repeal.  The  former  was  indicated  by 
judicial  dicta  nearly  a  century  ago.  In  the  case  of  Ware  v. 
Hylton,  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in 
the  year  1796,  it  was  asserted  by  Justice  Iredell  that  if 
Congress  should  declare  a  treaty  void,  he  should  deem  it 
his  duty  to  so  consider  it  "  and  then  forbear  any  share  in 
executing  it  as  a  judge."  The  question  became,  however, 
the  subject  of  more  careful  and  determinate  consideration 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  151 

about  thirty  years  ago,  and  the  principles  involved  have 
been  elaborated  by  a  series  of  juridical  opinions  and  judicial 
decisions  extending  nearly  to  the  present  date.  It  was 
carefully  entered  into  in  1851  by  the  then  Attorney-General 
with  reference  to  the  power  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
in  the  matter  of  certain  Florida  claims  preferred  under  the 
ninth  article  of  the  treaty  between  the  United  States  and 
Spain. 

Regarding  this  it  was  fully  conceded  that  an  act  of  Con 
gress,  subsequent  to  the  treaty,  conflicted  with  the  latter. 
The  opinion  is  careful  and  exhaustive,  and  its  conclusions 
were  expressed  in  no  uncertain  terms.  It  set  forth  that 
the  only  provision  of  the  Constitution  relating  to  the  sub 
ject,  that  is  "  This  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  all 
treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made  under  the  authority 
of  the  United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land." 
After  quoting  this,  the  sole  authority  under  which  the  Gov 
ernment  may  conclude  a  treaty,  the  opinion  continues  : 
"  An  act  of  Congress,  then,  is  as  much  a  supreme  law  of  the 
land  as  a  treaty.  They  are  placed  on  the  same  footing, 
and  no  preference  or  superiority  is  given  to  the  one  over 
the  other.  The  last  expression  then  of  the  law-giving 
power  must  prevail,  and  just  for  the  same  reason,  and  on 
the  same  principle  that  a  subsequent  act  must  prevail  and 
have  effect  though  inconsistent  with  a  prior  treaty." 

Further  on  in  the  same  opinion  the  same  jurist  condenses 
the  controlling  principles  of  constitutional  and  international 
law  bearing  upon  the  question  under  consideration,  in  lan 
guage  so  clear  as  to  be  worthy  of  extended  quotation.  He 
says  :  "  The  supreme  political  and  legislative  power  of  this 
country  is  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  under  the  Constitution,  and  its  acts  are  un 
controllable  except  only  by  that  Constitution  ;  and  that 
Constitution  does  not  say  that  Congress  shall  pass  no  law 
inconsistent  with  a  treaty,  and  it  would  have  been  a  strange 


IS2  THE    CHINESE, 

anomaly  if  it  had  imposed  any  such  prohibition.  There 
may  be  cases  of  treaties  so  injurious,  or  which  may  become 
so  by  change  of  circumstances,  that  it  may  be  the  right  and 
duty  of  the  government  to  renounce  or  disregard  them. 
Every  government  must  judge  and  determine  for  itself 
the  proper  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  such  a  power  ;  and 
such  a  power,  I  suppose,  is  impliedly  reserved  by  every 
party  to  a  treaty,  and  I  hope  and  believe  belongs  inalien 
ably  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  It  is  true 
that  such  a  power  may  be  abused — so  may  the  treaty-making 
power,  and  all  other  powers — but  for  our  security  against 
such  abuse  we  may  and  must  rely  on  the  integrity,  wisdom, 
and  good  faith  of  our  government."  From  this  opinion  of 
the  law  officer  of  the  government,  designed  to  aid  the  latter 
in  its  relations  with  foreign  powers,  we  may  turn  to  the  de 
cisions  of  our  courts  in  which  the  same  problem  has  been 
presented  to  their  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  domestic  con 
cern. 

In  1855  the  question  of  the  power  of  Congress  to  repeal 
a  treaty  came  before  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for 
the  first  circuit,  in  Taylor  v.  Morton,  before  Judge  B.  R. 
Curtis,  whose  profound  learning  in  the  higher  branches  of 
the  law  has  long  been  the  subject  of  legal  encomium. 
The  action  related  to  the  collection  of  duties  on  the  im 
portation  of  Russian  hemp,  levied  under  an  act  of  Congress 
admitted  to  be  in  direct  collision  with  the  treaty  concluded 
with  Russia  in  1832.  The  question,  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
the  issue  under  consideration,  was  stated  by  the  Court  in 
the  following  words  :  "  That  an  act  of  Congress  should 
levy  a  duty  upon  imports  which  any  existing  commercial 
treaty  declares  shall  not  be  levied,  so  that  the  treaty  is  in 
conflict  with  the  act  itself,  shall  the  former  or  the  latter 
give  the  rule  of  decision  in  the  judicial  tribunals  of  the 
United  States  in  a  case  to  which  one  rule  or  the  other  must 
be  applied  ?  "  Through  a  chain  of  reasoning  cogent  and 
convincing,  but  too  closely  woven  throughout  to  admit  of 


AArD    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  153 

brief  extract,  the  Court  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  Con 
gress  has  the  power  of  repealing  treaties.  This  decision 
was  reached  not  only  from  the  terms  of  the  Constitution 
itself,  but  upon  the  further  ground  that  any  other  interpre 
tation  would  render  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
unable  to  change  or  abrogate  a  treaty  without  the  consent 
of  a  foreign  government.  Said  the  learned  and  able  judge  : 
"  That  the  Constitution  was  designed  to  place  our  country 
in  this  helpless  condition  is  a  supposition  wholly  inadmis 
sible."  Upon  a  still  broader  basis  of  reasoning  he  en 
forced  a  primal  principle  of  international  law  by  declaring 
that  the  power  to  refuse  to  execute  a  treaty  "  is  a  pre 
rogative  of  which  no  nation  can  be  deprived  without  deeply 
affecting  its  independence,"  and  expressed  his  clear  and 
profound  conviction  of  this  in  the  following  words:  "  That 
the  people  of  the  United  States  have  deprived  their  gov 
ernment  of  this  power  in  any  case  I  do  not  believe.  That 
it  must  reside  somewhere  and  be  applicable  to  all  cases  I 
am  convinced.  I  feel  no  doubt  it  belongs  to  Congress." 
The  Court  found,  moreover,  a  leading  precedent  dating  back 
as  far  as  the  year  1798,  when  Congress  declared  the  treaties 
with  France  no  longer  obligatory  on  the  United  States. 

The  same  principle  was  affirmed  by  Judge  Woodruff,  in 
Ropes  v.  Clinch,  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York,  in  April,  1871. 
Although  the  parties  were  different,  the  subject-matter  was 
substantially  the  same  as  that  in  Taylor  v.  Morton,  the  suit 
having  been  brought  against  the  Collector  of  the  Port  of 
New  York,  to  recover  duties  paid  under  a  law  in  conflict 
with  our  treaty  of  1832  before  referred  to ;  the  duties 
having  been  paid  under  protest.  The  sixth  article  of  the 
treaty  declared  in  substance  that  no  article,  "  the  produce 
or  manufacture  of  Russia,"  should  pay  a  higher  duty  than 
a  "  like  article  produced  or  manufactured  in  any  other 
foreign  country,"  whereas  the  act  of  Congress  levied  forty 


154  THE   CHINESE, 

dollars  per  ton  on  the  hemp  of  Russia,  and  but  twenty- 
five  dollars  per  ton  on  the  hemp  of  India  and  Manilla. 

Here  was  a  direct  conflict  between  the  express  terms  of 
a  treaty  and  the  specific  language  of  an  act  of  Congress  of 
later  date.  The  language  of  the  act  was  held  by  the  Court 
to  be  unequivocal,  incapable  of  any  interpretation  that 
would  not  place  it  in  direct  conflict  with  the  treaty.  The 
Court  said  :  "  I  understand  it  to  be  conceded,  and  if  it  be 
not,  I  should  be  constrained  to  hold  that  the  legislative  de 
partment  in  this  government  may  pass  any  law  it  pleases 
(if  it  is  otherwise  constitutional),  notwithstanding  it  con 
flicts,  and  notwithstanding  whatever  degree  greater  or  less 
it  conflicts,  with  the  existing  treaty  with  a  foreign  nation." 

In  the  same  paragraph  the  Court  declared  that  the 
legislative  department  has  power  to  "  give  to  those  laws 
efficiency  and  force."  The  question  had,  however,  come 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  the  pre 
vious  year,  in  the  Cherokee  Tobacco  Case,  in  which  the 
merits  were  as  follows  : 

By  the  tenth  article  of  a  treaty  entered  into  with  the 
tribe  in  1866,  it  was  agreed  that  "  every  Cherokee  Indian 
and  freed  person  residing  in  the  Cherokee  nation  shall  have 
the  right  to  sell  any  products  of  his  farm,  including  his  or 
her  live-stock,  or  any  merchandise  or  manufactured  pro 
ducts,  and  ship  and  drive  the  same  to  market  without  re 
straint  ;  paying  any  tax  thereon  which  is  now  or  may  be 
levied  by  the  United  States  on  the  quantity  sold  outside 
of  the  Indian  Territory."  In  1868  Congress  passed  a  law 
for  the  collection  of  internal  revenue,  which  imposed  a  tax 
"  on  distilled  spirits,  fermented  liquors,  tobacco,  snuff,  and 
cigars  produced  anywhere  within  the  exterior  boundaries 
of  the  United  States."  It  is  therefore  plain  that  while  the 
treaty  guaranteed  certain  exemptions  to  the  Cherokees,  the 
internal  revenue  law  swept  those  exemptions  away.  In  the 
language  of  the  decision  of  the  Court,  delivered  by  Mr. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  155 

Justice  Swayne,  "  undoubtedly  one  or  the  other  must  yield; 
the  repugnance  is  clear,  and  they  cannot  stand  together." 
The  determination  of  the  matter  was  lucidly  set  forth  in 
the  following  terms  :  "  The  effects  of  treaties  and  acts  of 
Congress  when  in  conflict  is  not  settled  by  the  Constitution. 
But  the  question  is  not  involved  in  any  doubt  as  to  its 
proper  solution  ;  a  treaty  may  supersede  a  prior  act  of 
Congress,  and  an  act  of  Congress  may  supersede  a  prior 
treaty.  In  the  cases  referred  to  (Foster  et  al.  v.  Neilson,  and 
Taylor  v.  Morton)  these  principles  were  applied  to  treaties 
with  foreign  nations,  treaties  with  Indian  nations  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  whatever  consider 
ations  of  humanity  and  good  faith  may  be  involved  and 
require  their  faithful  observance,  cannot  be  more  obliga 
tory  ;  and  no  higher  sanctity  and  no  greater  inviolability  or 
immunity  from  legislative  invasion  can  be  claimed  for  them." 
The  text-writers,  following  the  authorities,  of  course 
enunciate  the  same  principle.  Story  on  the  Constitution, 
after  an  explanation  of  the  force  and  obligations  of  treaties, 
considered  as  laws,  proceeds  as  follows  :  "  This  will  not 
prevent  them  from  being  cancelled  or  abrogated  by  the 
nation  upon  grave  and  suitable  occasions,  for  it  will  not  be 
disputed  that  they  are  subject  to  the  legislative  power,  and 
may  be  repealed,  like  other  laws,  at  its  pleasure."  It  is 
thus  manifest  that  the  whole  course  of  American  juris 
prudence,  as  conceived  by  jurists,  and  made  authoritative 
and  binding  by  our  highest  courts,  holds  that  a  treaty  may 
be  repealed  by  an  act  of  Congress.  The  vested  right  of 
the  legislative  branch  of  the  government  to  take  such 
action  as  may  seem  requisite  for  the  welfare  of  the  people, 
irrespective  of  contracts  entered  into  with  foreign  nations 
and  here  held  to  have  the  force  of  law,  is  therefore  beyond 
dispute.  Such  being  the  case,  we  are  brought  now  to  this 
further  consideration  :  What  questions  of  public  morality 
are  involved  in  the  exercise  of  the  legal  attributes  of 
Congress  in  the  premises  ? 


156  THE   CHINESE, 

At  this  point  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  another  and  a  very 
clear  distinction  which  exists  between  a  treaty  considered. 
,as  a  law,  and  a  treaty  considered  as  a  contract.  As  regards 
the  powers  of  the  'legislative  branch  of  our  government 
the  matter  must  be  considered  from  the  former  aspect,  for 
this  is  enjoined  by  the  express  language  of  the  Consti 
tution.  But  as  concerns  the  equities  or  moral  obligations 
of  a  treaty,  as  between  nation  and  nation,  it  is  to  be  looked 
upon  in  a  different  light.  The  provision  of  the  constitu 
tion  defines  the  status  of  a  treaty  within  our  own  territory  : 
it  does  not  establish  its  extra-territorial  position.  This  last 
depends  upon  the  general  principles  of  the  law  of  nations, 
and  under  this — as  defined  by  Chief  Justice  Marshall  in 
Foster  6°  Elam  v.  Neilson,  and  by  all  the  commentators 
before  and  since — "a  treaty  is  in  its  nature  a  contract  be 
tween  two  nations."  The  legal  power  to  rescind  a  con 
tract  being  conceded,  its  sanctity  and  permanence  should 
depend  upon  its  fairness.  In  other  words,  upon  the 
absence  of  those  elements  of  deceit,  error,  or  uncon 
scionable  hardship  which  would  nullify  an  agreement  be 
tween  individuals.  For  it  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  a 
principle  which  would  destroy  a  contract  between  man  and 
man  should  not  be  held  to  apply  to  one  in  which  the  wel 
fare  of  sixty  millions  of  people  is  involved. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  broader  consideration  of  this 
phase  of  the  matter,  it  may  be  well  to  remark  that  our  courts 
have  carried  this  idea  into  effective  decisions,  as  notably, 
shown  in  the  Cherokee  Tobacco  Case  above  referred  to,  which 
was  in  part  decided  upon  the  fact  that  the  treaty  would 
have  protected  illicit  gain  within  the  Cherokee  territory  and 
interfered  with  the  general  welfare  of  the  community.  The 
broad  doctrine  that  an  act  of  Congress  may  lawfully  abro 
gate  the  provisions  of  a  treaty  has  been  affirmed  in  later 
decisions ;  thus  in  the  "  Head-money  "  cases,  in  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York, 
in  September,  1883,  the  Court  said:  "  The  act  of  Congress,  if 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  i£7 

.in  conflict  with  the  prior  treaties,  supersedes  them."  It  is 
also  recognized  in  the  broad  statements  of  doctrine  which  I 
have  quoted  from  Vattel,  Wheaton,  and  others,  as  to  the 
lack  of  inherent  power  in  any  country  to  lawfully  injure 
itself  by  the  unwise  use  of  the  treaty-making  power.  As  I 
have  already  referred  to  the  injury  wrought  to  American 
industries  and  institutions  by  the  inflow  of  Chinese  under 
the  provisions  of  the  existing  treaty,  it  is  hardly  necessary 
to  further  insist  that  this  alone  should  be  held  a  sufficient 
reason  why  the  lawful  authority  of  Congress  should  be  ex 
ercised  with  a  view  to  its  prevention. 


XXXI. 

THE  CHINESE,   THE  FAVORED  NATION  CLAUSE,  AND  THE 
FEDERAL  COURTS. 

THE  necessity  for  a  repeal  of  the  treaties  with  China  so 
far  as  they  confer  any  right  or  privilege  of  residence  in  or 
immigration  to  this  country  is  further  shown  by  the  inter 
pretations  given  it  by  our  courts,  and  the  results  derivable 
therefrom.  The  starting  point  of  these  was  the  favored 
nation  clause — Article  VI — of  the  Burlingame  treaty, 
"  which  provides  that  citizens  and  subjects  of  the  two  na 
tions  shall  respectively  enjoy  the  same  privileges,  immunities 
or  exceptions  in  respect  to  travel  or  residence  within  the 
country  of  the  other  as  may  there  be  enjoyed  by  the  most 
favored  nation."  This,  it  is  to  be  noted,  by  no  means  con 
fers  the  same  rights  on  Americans  in  China  as  are  conferred 
by  it  upon  Chinese  in  the  United  States.  With  our  close 
commercial  relations  with  Europe  and  near  kin  to  her  peo 
ples,  the  permission  to  travel  or  locate  within  our  borders 
is,  almost  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  a  principle  of  our 
national  policy.  With  China  the  conditions  are,  and  for  cen 
turies  have  been,  entirely  the  reverse.  Alien  to  the  Caucasian 
and  jealous  of  his  approaches,  China  hinders  his  travel  and 


158  THE   CHINESE, 

discourages  his  settlement  in  her  regions;  and  the  nation 
most  favored  by  China  has  no  privileges  commensurate 
with  those  afforded  to  all  foreigners  in  the  United  States. 
The  proviso  of  the  treaty  which  looks  so  fair  upon  its  face, 
and  which  in  treaties  between  Caucasian  nations  is  based 
upon  justice  and  sound  policy,  became  a  wanton  concession, 
given  utterly  without  consideration,  when  embodied  in  the 
convention  with  China. 

It  is  upon  the  favored  nation  clause  of  the  treaty  that,  as 
I  have  indicated,  the  lines  of  precedent  in  re  the  status  of 
the  Chinese  in  this  country  have  been  constructed.  The 
constitution  and  laws  of  the  Pacific  States  from  the  beginning 
of  their  history  as  members  of  the  Federal  Union  have  been 
framed  and  directed  to  reduce  or  prevent  the  evils  resulting 
from  the  presence  of  the  Chinese,  and  to  a  substantially 
equal  degree  their  operation  has  been  frustrated  by  the 
.decisions  of  the  Federal  courts. 

The  constitution  of  Oregon  was  adopted  in  1857,  pre 
paratory  to  admission  to  the  Union.  The  State  was  ad 
mitted  in  1859  and  the  constitution  went  into  effect  in  pur 
suance  thereof  on  February  14,  1859.  That  constitution, 
section  8  of  Article  XVI.,  comprised  the  following  : 

"  No  Chinaman  not  a  resident  of  this  State  at  the  time 
of  the  adoption  of  this  constitution  shall  ever  hold  any  real 
estate  or  mining  claim,  or  work  any  mining  claim  thereon. 
The  legislative  assembly  shall  provide  by  law  in  the  most- 
effective  manner  for  carrying  out  the  above  provision." 

At  that  time,  thirty  years  ago,  but  few  Chinese  had  ven 
tured  as  far  north  as  Oregon  ;  their  number  was  few  and 
far  between,  but  the  menace  of  their  presence  was  mani 
fest  from  the  results  of  their  influx  to  California  even 
then.  The  constitutional  provision  was  followed  by  appro 
priate  legislation,  which  authorized  miners'  meetings  to 
make  local  regulations.  In  pursuance  of  this  the  miners  of 
a  district  situate  in  Jackson  County  established  rules  which, 
among  other  things,  declared  that  "  no  Mongolian  or  alien 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  159 

who  has  not  declared  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States  shall  hold  or  work  any  claim,"  and  also 
provided  that  any  claim  be  forfeited,  if  any  Mongolian  or 
Chinaman  were  employed  thereon  beyond  a  certain  limited 
length  of  time.  The  Federal  statute  was  to  the  effect  that 
the  mining  lands  were  open  to  occupation  and  purchase  by 
citizens  of  the  United  States  and  those  who  had  declared 
their  intention  to  become  citizens  ;  the  statute  thus  by 
implication  excluded  all  who  did  not  belong  to  one  or  the 
other  of  these  two  classes. 

In  pursuance  of  the  law,  the  complainant  Chapman  and 
four  others  located  claims  together  and  fulfilled  the  condi 
tions  required.  They  then  brought  suit  for  trespass  and  for 
relief  against  the  defendant  Toy  Long  and  four  others  upon 
the  ground  of  title  legally  acquired  by  them,  under  the  law  of 
the  State,  and  the  prohibition  of  alien  miners  by  the  Federal 
statute.  The  Court,  basing  its  opinion  upon  the  act  of 
Congress,  felt  compelled  to  decide  in  favor  of  the  complain 
ants,  but  anent  the  law  and  constitution  of  the  State  its 
opinion  was  so  flavored  with  adverse  suggestion  that  it 
deserves  attention  here.  After  quoting  the  favored  nation 
clause  the  judge  used  the  language  following  : 

"  The  right  to  reside  in  the  country  with  the  same  privi 
leges  as  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain  or  France,  implies 
the  right  to  follow  any  lawful  calling  or  pursuit  which  is 
open  to  the  subjects  of  these  powers.  Therefore,  the  pro 
visions  in  the  mining  regulation  of  Poorman  Creek,  which, 
in  effect,  forbid  Chinamen  from  working  in  a  mining  claim 
for  themselves  or  others,  as  well  as  the  clause  of  the  State 
constitution,  supra,  to  the  same  effect,  seem  to  be  in  direct 
conflict  with  this  article  of  the  treaty,  and,  if  so,  are  there 
fore  void." 

Let  us  analyze  this  dictum.  Let  us  see  what  it  means  ; 
read  and  re-read  it.  It  amounts  to  no  less  than  a  judi 
cial  assertion  that  a  treaty  may  nullify  the  organic  law 
of  a  sovereign  State,  and  annihilate  a  proviso  of  the 


160  THE    CHINESE, 

charter  under  which  the  State  was  admitted  into  the 
Union. 

The  next  case  bearing  on  the  point  under  consideration 
was  In  re  Parrat,  tried  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  District  of 
California.  The  character  of  the  opinion  is  best  explained 
in  the  language  of  the  syllabus,  which  is  in  these  words  :  "Any 
provision  of  the  constitution  or  laws  of  California  in  con 
flict  with  the  treaty  are  void."  It  further  says  of  a  treaty 
that  "  the  judges  of  any  State,  both  State  and  national,  are 
bound  thereby,  anything  in  the  constitution  or  laws  of  any 
State  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."  The  suit  grew  out 
of  the  provision  in  the  constitution  of  California  inhibiting 
the  employment  of  Chinese  by  corporations  created  under 
and  by  virtue  of  the  laws  of  the  State.  Sifted  to  its  ultimate 
meaning  this  decision  leads  to  but  one  conclusion,  that 
under  the  treaty-making  power  as  expounded  by  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court  for  the  District  of  California,  the  Presi 
dent  and  Senate  can  nullify  the  constitution  and  laws  of 
any  State,  and  inhibit  the  free  exercise  of  its  legislative 
powers  in  matters  exclusively  within  its  domestic  concerns. 

The  same  idea  was  further  and  more  aggressively  formu 
lated  in  Baker  v.  The  City  of  Portland,  in  1879.  The  State  of 
Oregon,  through  its  Legislature,  in  due  form  enacted  that  no 
Chinese  laborers  should  be  employed  on  the  improvements 
and  public  works  of  the  State.  The  Federal  Court  declared 
that  the  act  interfered  with  the  treaty  with  China  and  was 
therefore  void  !  in  other  words,  held  that  the  President,  the 
Senate,  and  a  foreign  nation  together  can  restrain  a  State 
from  doing,  in  its  sovereign  capacity,  and  in  its  domestic 
affairs,  what  any  individual  has  the  undisputed  legal  right 
to  do,  viz.,  employ  whom  it  pleases  in  the  performance  of 
his  own  work. 

Upon  the  averments  of  those  opinions  no  boundary  is 
laid  to  the  exercise  of  that  power.  They  aver  broadly  that 
"  the  treaty-making  power  has  been  surrendered  by  the 
States  to  the  National  Government,  and  vested  in  the  Presi- 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  161 

dent  and  the  Senate."  Not  a  word  to  imply  any  constitu 
tional  limitation  to  its  exercise.  Nor  upon  the  lines  of 
reasoning  adopted  by  the  Court  does  any  limitation  seem 
possible.  If  the  favored  nation  clause  in  a  treaty  with  a 
foreign  power  can,  as  asserted  in  Toy  Long's  case,  abro 
gate  any  prior  existing  constitution  of  a  State,  and  if,  as  in 
Parrat's,  it  can  destroy  the  control  of  a  State  over  corpora 
tions  of  its  own  creation,  and  if,  as  in  the  City  of  Portland 
case,  the  State  itself  is  powerless  to  declare  whom  it  will 
or  will  not  employ  on  its  public  works,  neither  logic  nor 
imagination  can  fix  the  limit  to  which  it  cannot  go. 

Another  line  of  decisions  implies  that  Congress,  acting 
adjunctive  to  the  treaty-making  power,  may  extend  to  the 
alien  Chinese  a  protection  which  the  constitution  renders 
it  impotent  to  extend  to  American  citizens.  The  scope 
of  the  fourteenth  amendment  has  been,  as  is  well  known, 
restricted  to  the  action  of  the  States  in  their  sovereign 
capacity,  and  protects  the  citizen,  not  against  ag 
gression  from  the  people  of  the  State,  but  only  against 
the  effect  of  adverse  legislation  ;  and  it  was  for  this  reason 
that  in  U.  S.  v.  Harris,  the  Supreme  Court  held  Section 
5519  of  the  Revised  Statutes  to  be  unconstitutional. 
This  section,  too  long  for  quotation  here,  related  to  conspir 
acies  of  two  or  more  persons  "  for  the  purpose  of  depriving, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  any  person  or  persons  of  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws,  or  equal  privileges  or  immu 
nities  under  the  laws."  One  Baldwin  was  held — in  the  Cir 
cuit  Court  for  the  District  of  California — on  a  charge  of 
conspiring  with  others  to  deprive  certain  Chinese  "  of  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws  guaranteed  to  them  under  our 
treaty  with  China."  The  cause  came  on  for  hearing  upon 
habeas  corpus  proceedings,  and  notwithstanding  that  the 
statute  had  been  held  void  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  a  case 
where  its  benefit  was  claimed  by  a  citizen,  the  Court  held 
that  it  was  valid  with  reference  to  an  alien  Chinaman. 
This  cause  went  up  to  the  Supreme  Court  and  this  decision 


102  THE   CHINESE, 

was  reversed.  But  the  overruling  decision  went  only  to 
the  extent  of  holding  that  the  section  of  the  statute  void 
as  to  citizens  could  not  be  held  valid  as  to  an  alien,  and 
was  qualified  by  the  words  "  that  the  United  States  have 
power  under  the  Constitution  to  provide  for  the  punishment 
of  those  who  are  guilty  of  depriving  Chinese  subjects  of 
any  of  the  rights,  privileges,  immunities,  or  exemptions 
guaranteed  them  by  this  treaty  we  do  not  doubt." 

It  is  but  fair  to  say,  however,  that  this  expression  of 
opinion  was  not  necessary  to  the  determination  of  the 
question  before  the  Court,  and  as  obiter  may  be  disregarded 
in  the  determination  of  a  case  in  future  in  which  the  point 
may  be  directly  involved.  But  it  is  clear  that,  if  followed, 
it  will  affirm  the  right  of  the  Federal  Government  to  do 
for  an  alien  Chinese  what  it  is  inhibited  by  the  Constitution 
from  doing  for  one  of  our  own  citizens.  Such  is  the  result, 
legally  speaking,  of  our  treaties  with  China  upon  the 
jurisprudence  and  the  rights  of  our  people.  When  treaty 
relations  with  a  foreign  power  not  only  work  injury  to  our 
industries  and  to  the  welfare  of  our  producing  classes,  but 
place  the  alien  in  a  position  superior  to  the  organic  laws 
of  our  States,  and  entitle  him  to  a  protection  unknown 
and  forbidden  to  citizens  of  the  United  States,  it  is  time 
those  relations  came  to  an  end. 

In  view  of  the  broad  and  far-reaching  import  of  the 
decisions  to  which  I  have  in  brief  above  referred,  it  is 
hardly  worth  the  while  to  consider  in  detail  those  of  minor 
or  merely  local  importance.  Yet  they  may  be  briefly  men 
tioned  as  further  illustrating  the  general  trend  and  tendency 
of  Federal  decisions  on  the  Pacific  coast  with  reference  to 
the  Chinese.  In  the  case  of  Lee  Tong,  the  city  of  Portland, 
Oregon,  passed  an  ordinance  in  pursuance  of  an  act  of  the 
State  Legislature  authorizing  it  to  suppress  gambling. 
The  ordinance  provided  that  any  person  carrying  on  or 
engaging  in  any  game  of  faro,  monte,  poker,  or  other 
enumerated  games,  including  fan-tan,  should  be  punished 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  163 

by  fine  or  imprisonment  or  both.  Upon  a  strictly  technical 
ruling  the  Court,  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  discharged  the 
accused.  In  the  case  of  Ah  Jow,  about  two  years  since, 
an  ordinance  of  Modesto,  California,  made  it  a  misde 
meanor  for  any  person  to  keep  or  maintain  any  place  where 
opium  or  its  preparations  was  sold  or  given  away,  and  also 
classed  as  a  misdemeanant  any  person  resorting  to,  fre 
quenting,  or  visiting  such  a  place,  except  in  the  case  of 
druggists  selling  the  drug  for  any  ailment  not  caused  by 
the  use  of  opium,— the  object  being,  of  course,  to  close  the 
opium  dens  of  the  city.  Upon  a  line  of  reasoning  which 
I  have  neither  the  space  nor  patience  to  consider,  the  Court 
held  that  the  imprisonment  of  the  Chinese  offender  violated 
"  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  of  the  United  States  Consti 
tution  by  restraining  one  of  his  liberty  without  due  process 
of  law."  In  Ah  Kon  v.  Nunan,  an  ordinance  of  the  city  and 
county  of  San  Francisco  declared  that  "  every  male  person 
imprisoned  in  the  county  jail  "  should  have  his  hair  clipped 
to  a  uniform  length  of  one  inch.  The  regulation  made 
no  distinction  between  the  Chinaman  and  the  white,  but  the 
Court  assumed  in  substance  to  take  judicial  notice  that  the 
act  bore  with  especial  severity  upon  the  Chinese,  and  con 
sequently  declared  it  void.  Another  decision,  of  serious 
import  in  the  event  of  any  considerable  natural  increase  of 
the  Chinese  in  this  country,  is  that  in  the  case  of  Look 
Tin  Sing,  decided  less  than  four  years  ago,  in  which  it  was 
held  that  the  children  of  Chinese  born  in  this  country  are 
citizens  de  facto,  and  that  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  Con 
gress  to  exclude  them  from  the  country.  It  may  be  here 
remarked  that  no  legislature  has  ever  extended  the  rights  of 
citizenship  to  the  Chinese,  and  as  citizenship  can  only  be- 
extended  to  an  alien  by  a  law  enacted  for  that  purpose, 
the  absence  of  such  legislation  is  the  ground  upon  which, 
as  in  the  case  of  Ah  Yup,  decided  about  ten  years  ago  in 
the  Circuit  Court  for  the  District  of  California,  alien 
Chinese  are  held  to  be  inhibited  from  naturalization.  It 


1 64  THE   CHINESE, 

has  further  been  held,  this  time  by  a  Federal  judge  in 
Massachusetts,  that  the  act  of  Congress  was  dependent 
upon  the  treaty,  and  that  as  the  treaty  was  made  with 
China  the  act  could  not  be  applied  to  a  Chinaman  alleged 
to  have  been  born  in  Hong-Kong.  Of  course,  within  the 
space  afforded  by  these  pages  I  have  been  able  only  to 
outline  the  judicial  opinions  referred  to  ;  the  curious  may 
readily  consult  them  in  extenso  in  volumes  of  Federal 
judicial  opinions. 

XXXII. 

HEED  SHOULD  BE  GIVEN  TO  PUBLIC  OPINION  OF  THE 
PACIFIC  COAST  ADVERSE  TO  THE  PRESENCE  OF  THE 
CHINESE. 

IT  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  the  people  of  the  Pacific 
coast  are  so  unwise  as  to  have  appealed  for  thirty  years 
against  Chinese  immigration  without  good  reason  for  so 
doing.  As  we  have  seen,  the  constitutions  of  the  States  of 
Oregon  and  California,  and  legislation  made  in  pursuance 
of  those  constitutions,  have  aimed  directly  at  suppressing 
the  Chinese  as  a  disturbing  element  in  those  great  common 
wealths  :  and  we  have  also  seen  how,  through  judicial  inter 
pretation,  those  States  have  been  bound  hand  and  foot, 
their  constitutions  in  such  regard  held  to  be  nugatory,  and 
their  state  and  municipal  legislation  declared  to  be  so  much 
waste  paper.  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the 
world  has  witnessed  the  strange  spectacle  of  one  portion  of 
a  country  held  in  virtual  subjection  to  an  alien  and  antago 
nistic  race  through  the  agency  of  the  judiciary  and  the 
treaty-making  power.  The  result  of  this  has  been  the 
creation  of  an  intense  feeling  among  its  citizens  which, 
though  it  may  be  stifled  and  crushed  so  far  as  any  overt 
action  is  concerned,  is  none  the  less  an  evidence  of  the  en 
durance  of  a  persistent  wrong.  That  our  treaties  with 
China  and  the  various  laws  directed  against  Chinese  immi- 


AND    7WE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  165 

gration  are  to  all  practical  intents  and  purposes  a  mere 
sham  and  delusion  so  far  as  effectuating  their  object  is 
concerned,  is  illustrated  by  declarations  like  the  following, 
which  I  quote  from  the  telegraphic  news  of  the  New  York 
Tribune,  of  July  8  of  the  current  year  : 

"  Six  hundred  and  sixty-four  Chinese  arrived  this  week 
on  a  steamer  from  Hong-Kong,  of  whom  one-half  have  no 
certificates,  but  depend  upon  the  Federal  courts  to  land 
them  on  habeas  corpus  writs.  This  business  of  getting 
into  the  country  on  a  plea  of  prior  residence  is  increasing. 
Judges  and  court  officers  are  willing  to  aid  coolies,  as  each 
writ  means  a  fat  fee  for  them." 

The  bitterness  indicated  by  this  paragraph  is  common 
throughout  the  Pacific  coast,  and  the  fact  that  of  more  than 
six  hundred  immigrants  on  a  single  vessel,  one-half  had 
ventured  to  take  the  voyage  to  California  without  the  certifi 
cates  required  by  law,  demonstrates  that  there  must  have 
been  solid  grounds  for  their  confidence.  For  it  is  not  con 
ceivable  that  after  the  requirements  of  the  law  have  been  so 
long  and  so  thoroughly  well  known  to  the  steamship  officials 
and  to  officials  at  the  point  of  departure,  more  than  three 
hundred  Chinese  would-be  immigrants  would  venture  forth 
except  upon  substantial  assurance  that  the  need  of  the  cer 
tificates  would  in  some  way  be  evaded.  Of  course,  as  con 
cerns  the  concluding  line  of  the  quoted  paragraph,  it  is  to  be 
said  that  Federal  judges  under  the  law  receive  no  fees  what 
soever,  but  are  paid  by  stated  salaries.  But  that  such  an 
averment  should  be  made  at  all  illustrates  the  intensity  of 
the  sentiment  evoked  among  the  population  most  directly 
affected  by  the  presence  of  the  Chinese,  and  by  the  course 
of  judicial  action  thereon. 

This  bitterness,  however,  a  month  after  the  publication  of 
the  paragraph  I  have  cited,  was  indicated  by  more  pointed 
evidence  of  public  opinion  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  It  may 
be  remarked  here  that  in  1884  Judge  Sawyer  made  a  de 
cision  which  recognized  parole  evidence  in  place  of  the 


1 66  THE  CHINESE. 

certificate  contemplated  by  the  statute  in  the  case  of  re 
turning  Chinamen.  The  more  forcible  voicing  of  public 
opinion  to  which  I  have  just  alluded  is  found  in  the 
memorial  introduced  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on 
August  6  ult.,  which  calls  loudly  for  the  impeachment  of 
the  United  States  Circuit  Judge  for  the  Ninth  Circuit, 
and  of  the  United  States  District  Judge  for  the  District  of 
Nevada.  It  charges  that  since  the  Act  of  1884  nine  thous 
and  Chinamen  have  been  landed  in  San  Francisco  through 
the  process  of  habeas  corpus;  that  each  coolie  so  landed 
brings  a  fee  of  twenty  dollars  ;  that  the  Circuit  Court  "is 
the  conduit  through  which  this  Asiatic  filth  flows";  that 
statute  law  has  not  "been  able  to  to  withstand  the  hostile 
and  destructive  assault  of  the  Federal  judges"  of  the 
Coast;  and  that  their  course  has  been  "an  abuse  of  judi 
cial  power  unparalleled  since  the  days  of  Jeffries";  fur 
ther,  that  at  least  four  thousand  Chinamen,  without  the 
certificates  required  by  law,  have  been  turned  loose  on 
bail,  and  that  any  of  these  may  obtain  his  discharge  by  a 
false  oath  and  the  payment  of  the  required  fee.  With 
regard  to  the  restriction  laws,  the  memorialists  say  : 
"  In  the  attempt  to  carry  out  these  laws  the  customs  offi 
cials  have  been  thwarted  at  every  step  by  the  mandates  of 
the  Federal  courts.  By  the  abuse  of  the  right  of  habeas 
corpus  the  administration  of  the  act  has  been  taken  from 
the  hands  of  the  Collector  of  Customs  and  usurped  by  the 
courts.  The  examination  of  Chinese  on  board  ship,  by 
the  customs  authorities,  provided  for  in  your  act — which 
was  the  greatest  safeguard  against  the  landing  of  coolies — 
has  been  vetoed  by  the  Federal  courts,  although  it  was 
approved  by  the  President.  So  determined  have  been  the 
judges  to  defeat  the  plan  and  only  purpose  of  the  law  that 
they  have  gone  the  length  of  threatening  with  imprison 
ment  the  customs  officials  who  have  sought  to  perform  the 
sworn  duty  imposed  upon  them  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States." 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  167 

The  fact  that  at  the  time  of  this  present  writing  there  are 
some  four  thousand  habeas  corpus  cases  of  incoming  China 
men,  without  proper  vouchers,  pending  in  the  U.  S.  Cir 
cuit  Court  for  the  District  of  California,  is  eloquent  of  the 
extent  to  which  the  evasion  or  defiance  of  the  spirit  and  in 
tent  of  the  law  is  carried  on.  Aside  from  the  direct  impor 
tation  of  Chinese  to  San  Francisco,  and  their  spread  west 
ward  through  American  country,  their  influx  into  the  Brit 
ish  possessions  is  practically  unlimited,  and  from  these  they 
find  easy  access  to  the  United  States.  During  the  past 
and  present  year  large  numbers  have  made  their  way  across 
the  continent  by  the  Canadian  Railway,  and  have  then 
entered  this  country  upon  certificates  real  or  alleged. 


XXXIII. 

ANALYSIS   OF    THE    BURLINGAME    TREATY. 

WE  may  now  pass  to  another  portion  of  the  subject,  that 
relating  to  the  origin  and  effects  of  the  Burlingame  treaty. 
In  doing  this  we  necessarily  revert  to  our  early  diplomatic 
relations  with  China,  the  latter  designated  in  the  treaties  as 
the  Ta-Tsing  Empire. 

In  1843,  at  an  expense  of  forty  thousand  dollars,  Caleb 
Gushing  was  sent  as  Envoy  Extraordinary,  etc.,  "  to  estab 
lish  the  future  commercial  relations  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Chinese  Empire  on  terms  of  national  equal 
reciprocity."  A  treaty  was  concluded  in  the  following  year 
and  ratified  by  the  Senate  early  in  1845.  Within  seven 
years  from  that  date  the  influx  of  Chinese  into  California 
had  alarmed  the  inhabitants  and  led  to  protests  which  were 
disregarded  by  public  opinion  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains,  and  treated  with  contempt  by  the  government.  In 
1858,  an  American  commissioner  was  sent  to  cooperate 
with  the  envoys  of  other  foreign  countries  in  the  accom 
plishment  of  the  objects  sought  by  the  selfish  and 


1 68  THE   CHINESE, 

aggressive  diplomacy  of  Europe.  This  was  but  a  contin 
uation  of  our  national  subserviency  to  the  interests  of 
Great  Britain,  France,  and  other  European  countries  who 
were  seeking  to  establish  themselves  in  Chinese  waters 
for  the  purpose  of  controlling  Chinese  trade.  This 
resulted  in  a  second  or  additional  convention,  ostensibly 
for  the  regulation  of  commerce.  Although  these  two 
treaties  in  many  respects  bore  in  favor  of  the  Chinese  and 
against  the  Americans,  their  defects  were  rather  negative 
than  positive.  There  was  nothing  in  them  that  divested 
the  United  States  of  the  right  to  control  immigration  to 
its  own  territories,  or  to  restrict  or  regulate  the  privileges 
of  such  Chinese  as  might  come  to  our  shores. 

It  was  left  for  an  American  citizen  to  resign  the  proud 
position  of  an  American  plenipotentiary,  and  to  accept  in  its 
place  the  paying  patronage  of  the  Chinese  Emperor  ;  and 
through  this  to  fasten  upon  his  country  obligations  that  in 
every  line  were  a  betrayal  of  her  interests  and  a  thrust  at  her 
permanent  prosperity.  In  1861  Anson  Burlingame  was  sent 
to  China  as  the  Envoy  of  the  United  States.  In  1867  he 
left  the  service  of  his  own  country,  and  returned  as  the  head 
of  a  Chinese  commission  ;  his  associates  being  two  native 
Mongol  statesmen,  whose  inferior  station  and  astute  humil 
ity  provided  a  delicate  foil  to  the  ostentatious  vanity  and 
empty  assumption  of  the  tinsel  ambassador.  While  the 
nominal  chief  of  this  Chinese  embassy  was  overflowing  with, 
and  overflowed  by,  turgid  streams  of  sentiment,  his  asso 
ciates,  the  sedate  Celestials,  were  quietly  engaged  in  framing 
a  treaty  which,  in  sum  and  substance,  was  a  series  of  abject 
concessions  to  China.  In  no  wise  was  it  an  advantage  to 
the  United  States.  We  cannot  reasonably  objurgate  the 
Chinese  envoys  for  doing  their  utmost  for  their  own  peo 
ple,  and  we  may  even  admire  their  sagacity  in  making  use 
of  an  American  implement  in  compassing  their  designs. 
It  was  their  duty  to  secure  the  greatest  possible  benefit  to 
their  own  government  and  to  its  subjects,  and  they  would 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  169 

have  less  deserved  our  esteem  as  patriotic  men  and  skilful 
statesmen  had  their  efforts  been  less  than  they  were.  But 
it  is  hardly  possible  to  speak  with  respect  of  the  mock  man 
darin,  their  associate  and  instrument,  or  of  his  aiders  and 
abettors  here.  Every  paragraph  of  what  is  known  as  the 
Burlingame  treaty  is  either  a  useless  or  mischievous  conces 
sion,  or  a  formal  recital  of  some  mere  platitude. 

Section  i  binds  the  United  States  not  to  attack  <l  the  citi 
zens  or  subjects  of  any  foreign  power,  or  their  property, 
with  which  they  may  be  at  war,"  on  any  of  the  tracts  of  lands 
or  water  of  the  empire,  which  China  had  conceded  to  the 
citizens  of  foreign  powers,  and  the  same  section  also  pro 
vides  in  substance  that  the  Chinese  authorities  shall  not  be 
divested  of  jurisdiction  over  the  persons  and  properties  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  in  any  tract  of  land  conceded 
to  the  latter,  except  in  the  special  treaty  ports.  Article  II. 
provides  that  "  any  privilege  or  immunity  in  respect  of  trade 
or  navigation  within  the  Chinese  dominions  which  may  not 
have  been  stipulated  for  by  treaty,  shall  be  subject  to  the 
discretion  of  the  Chinese  Government,  and  may  be  regulated 
by  it  accordingly."  Section  3  enacts  that  consuls  ap 
pointed  by  the  Emperor  of  China  shall  enjoy  the  same  privi 
leges  and  immunities  in  the  ports  of  the  United  States  as 
those  enjoyed  by  the  consuls  of  Great  Britain  and  Russia. 
Section  4  concedes  to  the  Chinese  the  previously  disputed 
point,  that  places  of  sepulture  must  be  held  free  from  dis 
turbance  or  profanation,  and  also  provides  for  liberty  of 
conscience  in  either  country.  This  latter  article,  taken  in 
connection  with  the  rest  of  the  treaty,  means  that  an 
American  may  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience  in  the  treaty 
ports  of  China  and  the  Chinese  shall  enjoy  the  same  liberty 
throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the  United  States  ;  but  as 
this  is  guaranteed  in  any  case  by  our  Constitution,  and  as 
the  liberty  existed  in  the  treaty  ports  without  the  aforesaid 
article,  the  latter  is  simply  an  empty  paragraph.  Article 
V.,  in  express  terms,  "  cordially  recognizes  the  inherent  and 


17°  THE   CHINESE. 

inalienable  right  of  man  to  change  his  home  and  allegiance, 
and  also  the  mutual  advantage  of  the  free  migration  and 
emigration  of  their  citizens  and  subjects  respectively  from 
the  one  country  to  the  other  for  purposes  of  curiosity,  of 
trade,  or  as  permanent  residents."  The  advantage  of  which 
provision,  in  the  nature  of  things,  inures  solely  to  the 
Chinese,  for  the  reason  that  where  one  American  emigrates 
to  China,  five  hundred  Chinese  immigrate  to  the  United 
States. 

The  same  article  contains  a  proviso  that  certain  laws  shall 
be  passed  concerning  the  forced  emigration  of  coolies,  and 
of  this  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter.  Article  VI 
is  that  under  which  Chinese  immigration  was  protected 
until  that  article  was  modified  by  subsequent  conven 
tions,  and  from  its  importance  I  quote  it  at  length. 
It  is  as  follows  :  "  Citizens  of  the  United  States  visiting  or 
residing  in  China  shall  enjoy  the  same  privileges,  immunities, 
or  exemptions  in  respect  to  travel  or  residence  as  may  there 
be  enjoyed  by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most  favored 
nation;  and  reciprocally,  Chinese  subjects  visiting  or  residing 
in  the  United  States  shall  enjoy  the  same  privileges,  immu- 
'nities,  and  exemptions  in  respect  to  travel  or  residence  as 
may  there  be  enjoyed  by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  the  most 
favored  nation.  But  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  held 
to  confer  naturalization  upon  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  in  China,  nor  upon  the  citizens  of  China  in  the  United 
States."  The  effect  of  this  is  plain  when  we  reflect  that 
China  grants  to  the  most  favored  nation  simply  the  right  to 
reside  and  trade  in  certain  specified  localities,  seven  in 
number,  while  the  United  States  grants  to  its  most  favored 
nation  the  right  of  access  for  travel,  trade,  or  permanent 
residence  in  any  part  of  our  country  without  restriction. 
Article  VII.  provides  for  reciprocity  in  the  matter  of  schools; 
American  citizens  to  be  at  liberty  to  enjoy  the  privileges  of 
the  public  educational  institutions  under  the  control  of  the 
government  of  China,  and  Chinese  citizens  to  be  at  liberty 


AND    THE   CHINESE    QUESTION.  171 

to  enjoy  the  like  privileges  in  the  United  States.  By  this 
article  also,  "  citizens  of  the  United  States  may  freely 
establish  and  maintain  schools  within  the  Empire  of  China 
at  those  places  where  foreigners  are  by  treaty  permitted  to 
reside."  In  return  for  this  it  is  provided  that  "  Chinese 
subjects  may  enjoy  the  same  privileges  and  immunities  in 
the  United  States."  In  other  words,  in  the  seventh  article 
as  in  the  sixth,  the  dozen  treaty  ports,  more  or  less,  of 
China,  are  set  off  against  the  whole  extent  of  the  United 
States. 

As  Article  VI.  was  a  triumph  in  behalf  of  the  Chinese 
people  as  relates  to  this  country,  so  Article  VIII.  was  a 
triumph  for  them  at  home.  This  article  was  a  clear  and 
formal  waiver  on  our  part  of  the  claims  which  our  envoys, 
both  before  and  since,  have  made  to  interfere  in  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  empire.  For  although  this  was  right  and 
proper  in  itself,  it  was  none  the  less  an  evidence  of  weakness, 
as  contradicting  our  own  pretensions,  and  of  undue 
solicitude  for  the  welfare  of.China  while  neglecting  our  own. 
In  the  exact  words  of  the  treaty,  "  the  United  States  do 
hereby  freely  disclaim  and  disavow  any  intention  or  right 
to  intervene  in  the  domestic  administration  of  China  in 
regard  to  the  construction  of  railroads,  telegraphs,  or  other 
material  internal  improvements."  To  render  this  still  more 
potent  and  definite,  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  China 
"  reserves  to  himself  the  right  to  decide  the  time  and 
manner  and  circumstances  of  introducing  such  improve 
ments  within  his  dominions,"  but  the  genuflections  of  our 
government  went  still  lower,  for,  to  again  quote  from  the 
treaty,  it  was  "  agreed  by  the  contracting  parties  that  if  at 
any  time  hereafter  His  Imperial  Majesty  shall  determine  to 
construct  or  cause  to  be  constructed  works  of  the  character 
mentioned,  within  the  empire,  and  shall  make  application 
to  the  United  States,  or  any  other  western  power,  for 
facilities  to  carry  out  that  policy,  the  United  States  will  in 
that  case  designate  and  authorize  suitable  engineers  to  be 


172  THE    CHINESE, 

employed  by  the  Chinese  Government,  and  will  recommend 
to  other  nations  an  equal  compliance  with  such  application." 
By  this  we  are  bound  to  supply  on  demand  teachers  in 
engineering  to  the  Chinese  Government,  and  are  also 
obligated  to  become  their  humble  advocates  in  urging  their 
requests  upon  the  cabinets  of  Europe. 

In  these  seven  articles  is  comprised  the  whole  of  the 
Burlingame  treaty.  It  is  composed  of  these  seven  articles 
and  no  more.  Not  one  of  these  articles  has  ever  brought, 
or  is  capable  of  ever  bringing,  any  advantage  to  this 
country  in  return  for  the  concessions  to  China.  Yet  it  was 
this  treaty  which  was  ratified  by  our  government  and  hailed 
by  a  large  portion  of  our  people  with  an  affluence  of  delight 
as  inaugurating  a  new  era  of  peace  and  good-will  to  men. 
Never  was  human  folly  more  thoroughly  exemplified,  and 
never  has  it  been  punished  more  speedily  or  with  greater 
bitterness.  It  is  twenty  years  since  the  ratification  of  the 
Burlingame  treaty,  and  to-day  on  our  Pacific  coast  the 
Mongol  is  stronger  than  we,  and  in  the  eastern  portion  of 
our  country  his  advent  adds  a  new  element  to  the  intricate 
problems  of  our  restless  society  and  lays  a  new  burden  on 
the  already  overweighted  shoulders  of  the  producing 
classes.  That  an  international  contract,  in  which  the  advan 
tages  are  all  on  one  side  and  all  the  disadvantages  on  the 
other — in  which  no  equivalent  is  rendered  for  benefits 
offered  or  inconveniences  endured — can  be  morally  or  equi 
tably  binding,  is  a  proposition  absurd  upon  its  face. 

XXXIV. 

CHINA  HAS  HERSELF  FAILED  TO  FULFIL  ITS  CONDITIONS, 
AND  THE  TREATY,  ON  ACCEPTED  PRINCIPLES,  IS  VOID 
ABLE  THEREBY. 

THERE  is,  moreover,  another  solution  of  the  question  of 
right,  which  should  satisfy  even  those  who,  deeming  equity 
insufficient  and  expediency  a  thing  of  evil  growth,  contend 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  i?3 

for  legal  forms  as  the  embodiment  of  justice.  It  is  an 
axiom  of  all  law  that  where  a  contract  is  broken  by  one  of 
the  parties  thereto  it  cannot  be  held  to  be  obligatory  on 
the  other.  Grotius  authoritatively  declares  that  "  every 
article  of  a  treaty  carries  with  it  a  condition,  by  the  non- 
performance  of  which  the  treaty  is  wholly  cancelled,"  and 
Vattel  enforces  the  same  idea  in  the  following  words.  "  The 
party  who  is  offended  or  injured  in  those  particulars  which 
constitute  the  basis  of  the  treaty  is  at  liberty  to  choose  the 
alternative  of  either  compelling  a  faithless  ally  to  fulfil  his 
engagements  or  of  declaring  the  treaty  dissolved  by  his 
violation  of  it."  The  principle  indeed  cannot  be  contro 
verted,  for  were  it  otherwise  one  party  flagrantly  violating 
an  international  compact  could  still  compel  another  to  fulfil 
pledges  given  in  consideration  of  the  very  pledges  flagi 
tiously  broken. 

This  is  precisely  the  condition  of  affairs  with  reference 
to  the  Burlingame  treaty.  Under  the  fifth  article  the  con 
tracting  powers  agreed  to  pass  laws  making  it  a  penal 
offence  for  a  "  citizen  of  the  United  States  to  take  Chinese 
subjects  either  to  the  United  States  or  to  any  other  foreign 
country,  or  for  a  Chinese  subject  or  citizen  of  the  United 
States  to  take  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  China  or  to 
any  other  foreign  country,  without  their  free  and  voluntary 
consent  respectively."  The  United  States  has  kept  its 
part  of  this  compact  by  sections  2158  to  2164  inclusive  of 
the  Revised  Statutes,  the  provisions  of  which  are  positive 
in  their  terms  and  almost  extreme  in  their  penalties.  China, 
however,  has  utterly  neglected  to  make  such  a  law  or  to 
take  any  effective  steps  to  prevent  emigration,  under 
duress,  of  her  subjects. 

It  has  been  already  shown  that  in  California  the  China 
men  are  held  under  the  despotic  control  of  the  Six  Com 
panies,  and  it  is  beyond  dispute  that  the  companies  obtain 
their  immigrants  through  a  process  of  sale  which  amounts 
to  nothing  more  or  less  than  an  infraction  of  the  treaty. 


i?4  THE   CHINESE, 

With  characteristic  cunning  and  far-sightedness  the  Chinese 
place  the  barracoons  of  coolies  within  the  territories  allotted 
to  foreigners.  They  were  at  one  time  located  in  Hong- 
Kong,  which  is  under  British  control  ;  but  when  the  out 
rage  became  too  manifest  they  were  removed  to  the  Portu 
guese  territory  of  Macao.  To  prove  in  any  individual 
instance  that  a  Chinaman  passed  from  the  Chinese  popula 
tion  of  Canton  to  the  Chinese  population  of  Hong-Kong  or 
Macao,  is,  of  course,  practically  impossible,  although  the 
fact  that  such  is  the  case  with  the  thousands  thus  trans 
ferred  is  demonstrated  by  the  very  existence  of  the  barra 
coons.  Further,  although  the  passage  of  Chinese  subjects 
to  territories  controlled  by  Europeans  is  a  matter  with 
which  the  United  States  can  have  no  legal  concern,  and  in 
which  by  international  law  it  is  prevented  from  interfering, 
the  obligation  assumed  by  China  is  not  qualified  by  any 
exception,  and  so  far  as  her  own  action  is  concerned  is  as 
obligatory  as  if  Hong-Kong  and  Macao  did  not  exist.  The 
fact  that  the  Chinese  Government  has  not  thought  proper 
to  contribute  even  the  empty  form  of  an  edict  to  the  observ 
ance  of  the  treaty  is  a  practical  repudiation  of  its  pro 
visions.  Renounced  by  China  that  treaty  is  not  binding 
upon  the  United  States.  Thus  the  strictest  interpretation 
of  law,  as  does  all  else,  makes  manifest  the  right  of  our 
government  to  avoid  in  its  turn  the  disregarded  compact. 
The  duty,  also,  is  clear,  for  except  through  Congressional 
action  there  is  no  remedy.  The  Burlingame  treaty,  in  fact 
and  substance,  is  an  estoppel  upon  the  full  and  free 
administration  of  our  municipal  affairs.  It  is  true  that 
China  has  rendered  the  treaty  void  ;  true  that  its  existence 
is  a  continual  injury  to  this  country.  But  without  a 
declaration  on  the  part  of  the  political  branch  of  the 
government,  the  States  in  their  sovereign  capacity  find 
themselves  powerless  ;  and  the  Federal  courts,  in  consider 
ing  the  treaty  as  a  law,  take  no  cognizance  of  the  truth 
however  manifest.  Thus  the  action  of  State  governments 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  175" 

has  been  repeatedly  made  impotent  and  useless  by  Federal 
decisions  founded  upon  a  treaty  nullified  by  non-perform 
ance  on  the  part  of  the  very  power  in  behalf  of  whose 
subjects  it  has  been  invoked. 


XXXV. 

INCEPTION    OF    THE    BURLINGAME    TREATY  J     ITS    RATIFICA 
TION  AND  ATTENDANT  CIRCUMSTANCES. 

THAT  the  Burlingame  Treaty  was  "  conceived  in  sin  and 
brought  forth  in  iniquity  "  is  apparent  when  we  consider 
the  manner,  and  the  attendant  circumstances,  of  its  pro 
duction.  Concerning  these,  while  much  data  is  available, 
much  also  is  hidden  in  an  obscurity  which  may  never  be 
dispelled.  At  the  time  that  the  proceedings  were  the  sub 
ject  of  the  most  grandiloquent  phrases  their  details  were 
kept  in  the  background,  and  the  superabundance  of  gush 
hid  the  sordid  mechanism  of  cupidity  and  intrigue  behind 
it.  There  is  sufficient,  however,  in  affairs  of  record  to 
clearly  illuminate  the  subject  though  it  be  in  part  only  by 
necessary  implication. 

So  far  as  concerns  the  published  record  it  opens  with 
Burlingame's  written  resignation  of  his  office  as  envoy,  etc., 
of  the  United  States  near  the  Emperor  of  China.  It  is 
couched  in  the  bombastic  terms  of  a  dime  novel,  is  dated 
Pekin,  November  21,  1867,  is  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of 
State,  at  Washington,  and  is  as  follows  : 

"  SIR  :  In  the  interest  of  my  country  and  civilization, 
I  do  hereby  resign  my  commission  as  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  the  United  States  to 
China." 

On  the  day  that  was  written,  with,  so  far  as  appears,  no  ac 
ceptance  of  his  resignation,  he  turned  over  the  archives  of 
the  legation  to  a  subordinate,  and  also,  on  the  same  day,  an 
nounced  his  resignation  to  Prince  Kung,  the  acting  head  of 


17  6  THE   CHINESE, 

the  Chinese  Government.  Three  weeks  and  two  days  later  he 
addressed  a  letter  from  Shanghai  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
which  opened  with  these  words  :  "  You  will  have  learned 
from  my  telegram  from  Pekin  of  my  appointment  by  the 
Chinese  Government  as  '  envoy  '  to  the  treaty  powers  and  of 
my  acceptance  of  the  same,"  and  then  proceeds  to  say  that 
the  suggestion  of  such  appointment  was  first  made  at  a  fare 
well  dinner  given  in  pursuance  of  his  retirement  from  the 
position  of  American  Minister,  and  that  he  "  repulsed  the 
suggestion  playfully."  Afterwards,  he  says,  the  suggestion 
was  seriously  made  through  the  suggestion  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  British  legation,  and  thereafter  the  "  position  was 
formally  tendered,"  and  he  determined  "  in  the  interests  of 
civilization  and  his  country  " — he  repeats  the  phrase — to 
accept.  He  further  says  that  "  Two  Chinese  gentlemen," 
whom  he  names,  "  of  the  highest  rank  were  selected  from 
the  foreign  office  to  conduct  the  Chinese  correspondence, 
and  as  learners  "(?)  gives  the  names  of  two  secretaries,  and 
says  that  his  suite  "  will  number  about  thirty  persons." 
The  letter  concludes  with  the  words,  "  Permit  me  to  re 
quest  the  government  most  earnestly  not  to  name  my  suc 
cessor  until  I  can  give  it  information  which  may  be  useful 
in  making  a  selection."  We  have  in  this  letter  the  as 
sertion,  evidently  made  for  the  public  ear,  that  nothing  of 
the  kind  had  been  thought  of  until  after  Burlingame's 
resignation  on  November  21,  together  with  an  astounding 
statement  that  the  Chinese  Government  had  reached  the 
resolution  of  taking  the  new  departure  implied  in  sending 
an  ambassador  to  the  treaty  powers,  had  selected  the  am 
bassador,  had  obtained  his  sanction  and  acceptance  of  the 
position,  had  appointed  his  associates,  chosen  the  first  and 
second  secretaries  and  settled  the  number  of  his  attend 
ants,  all  within  the  space  of  twenty-three  days  after  the 
date  of  his  resignation,  and  all  this  in  a  government  and 
with  a  court  which  in  all  its  official  actions  proceeds  with 
the  extreme  of  deliberation  and  caution. 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  i?7 

That  the  averments  of  that  letter  were  essentially  untrue 
goes  without  saying.  Only  an  infantile  innocence  of  the 
ways  of  diplomacy  could  afford  a  credulous  moment  for 
belief  in  its  statements.  But  the  suggestive  portion  of  the 
document  is  found  in  its  final  paragraph,  already  quoted. 
We  have  the  spectacle  not  only  of  an  American  Minister 
resigning  his  place  as  such  to  immediately  accept  a  like 
but  more  highly  priced  position  under  a  foreign  govern 
ment,  not  only  an  American  returning  to  his  own  country 
as  the  paid  servant  of  another,  but  we  behold  him  asking 
the  government  of  the  United  States  to  permi*  him  to  ad 
vise  it  as  to  its  selection  of  an  envoy  to  fill  the  place  he  de 
serted.  The  hardihood  of  this  could  have  been  prompted 
by  nothing  less  than  the  influence  of  agencies  of  which  no 
sign  appears  in  the  published  record.  It  is  not  conceivable 
that  all  the  communications  from  Btirlingame,  and  from  the 
American  legation  after  he  left  it,  should  have  remained 
unanswered.  In  the  whole  of  the  one  hundred  and  twelve 
pages  of  "diplomatic  correspondence"  devoted  to  this 
and  other  affairs  with  China  in  that  year,  there  is  no  word 
or  line  from  the  State  Department  to  Burlingame,  or  to  the 
American  legation  in  China,  relating  to  the  resignation  of 
Burlingame,  or  to  the  inception  and  culmination  of  the  pro 
ceedings  through  which  he  became  ambassador  for  China. 
Whatever  the  agency  of  the  Department  of  State  may  have 
been,  the  evidence  thereof  is  suppressed.  Doubtless  it  may 
be  found  in  the  archives  ;  but  these  are  secret,  inaccessi 
ble,  and  practically  past  finding  out. 

If  the  silence  of  the  volumes  on  foreign  affairs  imports 
the  methods  of  the  dark  lantern,  the  antecedents  of  the  per 
son  who  served  in  the  double  capacity  of  Chinese  envoy 
and  of  adviser  to  the  American  State  Department,  of 
his  Caucasian  associates,  and  of  the  functionaries  who 
were  placed  in  charge  of  American  interests  in  China,  are 
also  noteworthy  in  this  connection.  The  first  secretary  of  the 
Chinese  embassy,  with  Burlingame  at  its  head,  was  the 


I?8  1'fJE   CHINESE, 

11  Chinese  secretary  of  the  British  legation,"  and  the  second 
was  a  French  gentleman  who  had  been  somewhat  familiar 
with  Chinese  affairs.  It  was  through  these  and  two  Chinese 
officials  "  to  conduct  the  Chinese  correspondence  "  that 
Mr.  Burlingame  was  expected  in  his  capacity  of  a  Chinese 
ambassador  to  advise  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
for  its  own  welfare.  Meanwhile  the  American  legation  at 
Pekin  was  left  in  charge  of  a  person  who  had  graduated 
into  diplomatic  life  from  the  position  of  Chinese  interpreter 
to  the  British  consulate,  and  who,  year  in  and  year  out,  was 
the  advocate  of  Chinese  immigration  to  the  United  States, 
and  of  foreign  aggression  upon  China. 

In  the  same  year,  a  "  Commissioner  of  agriculture  from 
the  United  States  to  China"  was  appointed,  and  it  appears 
that  he  was  permitted  to  join  private  adventure  with  offi 
cial  duty.  A  company  had  obtained  a  charter  from  the 
Mexican  Government  to  colonize  lands  in  Lower  California, 
and  the  agricultural  commissioner  to  China  accepted  an 
agency  to  obtain  ten  thousand  Chinamen  to  locate  in  that 
region  ;  of  this  scheme  Mr.  Burlingame  expressed  his  "cor 
dial  approbation."  Such  were  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  Burlingame  policy  was  initiated,  and  such  were 
the  men  through  whom  the  potent  influences  within  the  State 
Department  gave  a  new  impetus  to  Chinese  immigra 
tion  to  the  Pacific  coast,  in  utter  defiance  of  the  fact  that 
even  then  the  whole  policy  of  the  Pacific  States,  in  their 
constitutions,  laws  and  general  expression  of  public  opinion, 
had  declared  such  immigration  to  be  not  merely  a  nuisance 
but  a  scourge. 

Under  such  circumstances  and  with  the  assurance  of  such 
agents  the  new  treaty  was  a  foregone  conclusion  from  the 
moment  that  Burlingame  was  appointed  a  Chinese  envoy. 
That  the  objects  and  methods  of  his  mission  were  well  un 
derstood  before  he  left  China  there  can  be  no  doubt.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  meditated  any  treachery  to 
his  Chinese  employer  or  to  the  special  financial  interests, 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  179 

if  such  there  were,  whose  benefit  was  contemplated  by  the 
proposed  action.  But  the  care  with  which  two  Chinese 
officials  of  high  rank  were  associated  with  him,  and  the  fact 
that,  although  he  was  the  nominal  head  of  the  embassy, 
there  is  nothing  to  make  it  appear  that  he  could  act  without 
their  consent,  show  that  he  was  held  well  under  control  by 
the  authorities  at  Pekin.  With  the  assurance  of  a  treaty, 
such  as  a  few  months  later  was  entered  into,  the  induce 
ments  to  Chinese  immigration  to  the  Pacific  coast  were 
greatly  increased  ;  and  in  one  of  the  letters  from  the  Secre 
tary  of  State  to  the  American  legation  in  China  it  is  set 
forth  that  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  would  insure  greater 
protection  to  the  Chinese  in  this  country,  that  Chinese 
consuls  could  be  placed  at  our  ports,  and  the  Chinese  Gov 
ernment  be  enabled  to  more  fully  bring  the  attention  of  our 
Department  of  State  to  any  alleged  aggressio.ns  upon 
Chinese  immigrants. 

XXXVI. 

THE    TREATY     GAVE    A    FORCED    STIMULUS    TO    CHINESE    IM 
MIGRATION  J     THE    BENEFICIARIES    THEREOF. 

IT  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  proceedings  inherent  in 
the  production  of  the  treaty  were  a  matter  of  spontaneous 
generation,  or  that  it  sprang  up  like  a  mushroom  by  the 
wild  bounty  of  nature.  But  the  interests,  whatever  they 
were,  which  were  held  in  view  throughout  the  whole  affair, 
and  the  forces  which  engineered  it  throughout,  can  only  be 
inferred  by  the  process  colloquially  known  as  "  putting  this 
and  that  together."  Two  great  corporations  appear  to  have 
been  the  most  immediate  and  the  chief  beneficiaries  of  the 
results  that  followed  the  project  for,  and  the  ratification  of, 
that  treaty  of  1868.  The  one  constructed  its  railroad 
with  Chinese  labor,  the  other  controlled  the  passenger  traf 
fic  between  Hong- Kong  and  San  Francisco  and  transported 
the  Chinese  by  tens  of  thousands  to  the  Pacific  coast.  As 


l8o  THE   CHINESE, 

concerns  the  building  of  the  Pacific  roads,  it  has  been 
asserted  that  the  work  could  not  have  been  completed 
without  the  Chinese.  Such  an  averment  is  utterly  with 
out  foundation  in  fact,  as  will  appear  upon  slight  reflection. 

The  road  was  constructed  for  the  most  part  by  ten  thou 
sand  Chinese,  imported  en  bloc. 

The  work  would  assuredly  have  been,  at  the  least, 
quite  as  well  performed  by  the  same  number  of  Caucasian 
laborers.  During  the  war  which  had  ended  some  four 
years  previously,  manual  labor  in  the  Northern  and  Western 
States  had  been  superseded  by  machinery  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  conditions  of  every  industry,  and  especially  of 
agriculture,  were  radically  changed  and  ameliorated.  For 
example,  where  in  the  year  1860  there  had  been  one  mow 
ing  machine  at  work  in  the  meadows  of  the  North  or  one 
harvester  in  its  grain  fields,  there  were,  in  1865,  at  least  a 
hundred.  And  in  the  latter  year  a  million  of  able-bodied 
men  had  returned  from  the  battle-field  to  the  vocations  of 
peaceful  life.  The  cost  of  transcontinental  lines  had  been 
properly  estimated  upon  the  basis  of  then  current  wages  in 
this  country,  and  in  face  of  this  it  is  mere  hardihood  to 
assert  that  ten  thousand  men  at  the  wages  commonly  paid 
at  that  time  throughout  the  country  could  not  have  been 
obtained  to  complete  the  Pacific  roads;  for  ten  thousand 
men  would  have  been  about  two  per  cent,  of  the  number 
released  from  the  requirements  of  war,  and  added  to  the 
resources  of  the  industries  of  peace.  That  it  would  have 
diminished  the  millions  that  passed  into  the  possession  of 
those  interested  in  the  construction  of  the  road  may  be 
admitted,  but  it  could  not  have  diminished  even  those  prof 
its  to  an  extent  below  a  fair  remuneration  for  the  business 
ability,  the  courage,  and  the  risk  that  undoubtedly  were 
exhibited  in  the  undertaking.  Had  the  evil  of  the  impor 
tation  of  Chinese  labor  ceased  with  the  aggrandizement 
of  these,  the  matter  would  have  been  of  relatively  infini 
tesimal  moment.  But  the  evils,  as  -we  have  seen,  broad- 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  181 

ened  and  deepened  throughout  the  Pacific  region  and  have 
increased  in  rapid  ratio  from  that  time  to  the  present. 

Even  as  concerns  the  Chinese  in  their  own  country,  the 
direct  consequence  of  the  artificial  impulse  given  to  the 
importation  of  Chinese  laborers  was  in  many  respects  no 
less  than  an  an  unmitigated  wrong.  From  the  poverty  of 
the  class  from  among  whom  the  immigrants  were  of  neces 
sity  taken,  few  had  themselves  the  means  to  pay  their  pas 
sage  across  the  ocean.  Thus  it  was  that  when  the  runners 
and  the  agents  of  the  would-be  employers  of  Chinese  in  this 
country  scattered  their  promises  throughout  the  clustering 
village  in  the  region  around  and  beyond  Canton,  the  coolie 
mortgaged  his  wife  and  children  at  exorbitant  rates  of  in 
terest  to  raise  the  money  for  his  journey  ;  and  when  for 
any  reason  he  failed  to  repay  at  the  stated  time,  his  family 
was  torn  asunder,  the  male  children  sold  for  slaves  and  the 
wife  and  daughters  for  baser  uses.  Such  was  one  of  the 
incidental  results  of  the  unnatural  and  forced  impetus  given 
to  Chinese  immigration  consequent  upon  the  inception  and 
adoption  of  the  Burlingame  treaty. 

In  that  convention  are  comprised  substantially  our  present 
treaty  relations  with  China.  For,  as  I  have  before  remarked 
the  modifications  introduced  by  the  treaty  of  1882  have  no 
other  practical  value  than  that  of  respecting  the  amour 
propre  of  the  Chinese  Government,  a  result  which,  on  gen 
eral  principles  of  international  comity,  is  not  to  be  under 
valued  except  it  be  secured  at  too  great  a  cost.  If  it  is 
feasible  to  avoid  wounding  the  susceptibilities  of  China 
without  hindrance  to  measures  required  for  our  own  pro 
tection,  assuredly  no  objection  can  reasonably  be  had  there 
to.  But  it  is  far  from  clear  that  the  astuteness  of  Chinese 
diplomacy  has  not  overreached  our  own  ;  for  while  the 
Burlingame  treaty  referred  to  the  "  privileges "  of  the 
Chinese  in  the  United  States,  that  of  1882  added  the  word 
"  rights,"  which  is  certainly  a  much  more  comprehensive 
and  significant  term.  In  that,  as  in  many  another  matter 


1 82  THE    CHINESE. 

of  diplomacy,  the  acuteness  of  the  Chinese  intellect  has 
been  more  than  a  match  for  that  of  the  Caucasian. 

To  the  Acts  of  Congress  of  1882  and  of  1884  it  is  not 
necessary  to  more  than  allude.  They  are  worthless  except 
as  indicating  the  development  of  public  opinion  and  its 
awakening  to  the  necessities  of  the  time.  The  project  of  a 
new  treaty  with  China  has  proved  a  nullity,  as  the  additions 
made  by  the  Senate,  through  which  alone  actual  effect  could 
be  given  to  its  purpose,  have  caused  its  rejection  by  the 
Chinese.  This,  it  is  said,  is  due  to  British  influence  at 
Pekin  ;  a  further  evidence  of  the  actual  antagonism  between 
British  interests  and  our  own.  The  treaty,  with  the  pro 
posed  legislation  in  furtherance  thereof,  contained,  at  the 
best,  provisions  which  would  have  afforded  many  open 
opportunities  for  fraud,  which  would  have  caused  its  object 
in  a  great  measure  to  be  defeated.  Like  all  merely  pallia 
tive  measures  it  would  have  been  a  weak  and  inefficient 
instrument  for  the  end  desired.  Relief  from  the  Chinese 
scourge  can  only  be  obtained  through  our  own  efforts,  and 
the  agencies  of  our  own  government.  The  prohibitory  act 
now  before  Congress  has  greater  promise  than  any  measure 
heretofore  proposed.  But  it  has  the  radical  defect  of  seek 
ing  but  a  partial  remedy.  Far  more  radical  measures 
will  need  to  be  taken,  not  only  to  prevent  the  incoming  of 
the  Chinese,  but  to  lessen,  if  not  to  wholly  eliminate,  the 
number  already  here. 


XXXVII. 

MEASURES    REQUISITE    TO    MEET    AND     SUPPRESS    THE    INVA 
SION    OF    THE    CHINESE. 

THERE  is  no  safety  save  in  sweeping  away  the  whole  web 
of  absurd  treaty  provisions  which  a  reprehensible  policy 
has  created  and  permitted  to  exist  in  defiance  of  the  in- 


AND    THE    CHINESE    QUESTION.  183 

terests  and  rights  of  our  people  ;  and  this,  to  be  effective, 
must  be  supplemented  by  the  adoption  and  enforcement  of 
measures  which  will  not  only  put  an  end  to  Chinese  immigra 
tion  but  sooner  or  later  remove  the  Chinese  now  in  the 
country.  Without  this  course  there  can  be  no  suppression 
of  the  Chinese  scourge,  no  actual  limitation  to  its  extent  ; 
and  to  expect  relief  through  any  other  course  will  be  the 
acme  of  human  folly. 

Not  only  is  such  a  course  demanded  by  the  necessities 
of  the  case,  and  within  the  sovereign  powers  of  our  govern 
ment,  but  it  is  one  against  which  China  can  have  no  right 
nor  reason  to  protest.  Apart  from  the  grounds  to  which  I 
have  already  referred,  the  fact  that  China  herself  has  set 
the  example  in  more  than  one  instance  of  expelling  by  tens 
and  even  hundreds  of  thousands,  foreigners  inimical  to  her 
interests,  should  close  the  lips  of  her  statesmen  when  like 
measures  for  like  reasons  are  taken  by  other  countries. 
At  intervals  through  centuries  China  has  exercised  her 
sovereign  right  and  prerogative  not  only  to  expel  but  to 
slaughter  those  who,  from  the  peoples  of  the  west,  have 
settled  within  her  borders.  As  I  have  remarked  in  a  pre 
ceding  portion  of  this  work,  she  massacred,  a  thousand 
years  ago,  a  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  foreigners  who 
had  settled  in  her  seaport  cities  ;  and  at  intervals,  upon  a 
larger  or  smaller  scale,  the  same  action  has  been  repeated. 
China,  above  all  other  nations  of  the  earth,  has  exercised  her 
sovereignty  to  exclude  foreigners  whenever  for  any  reason 
it  has  pleased  her  to  do  so  ;  and  neither  the  lives  or  the 
property  of  Caucasians,  for  generations  at  a  time,  have  been 
safe  within  her  borders.  In  1723,  all  Christian  missionaries 
were  driven  from  their  places,  their  three  hundred  churches 
destroyed  or  applied  to  ignoble  purposes,  and  their  flocks, 
numbering  three  hundred  thousand  people,  were  scattered. 
Thirteen  years  later  the  same  thing  recurred,  "  churches 
were  plundered  and  property  confiscated,"  and  many  of  the 
Christians  were  put  to  the  torture;  and  nearly  a' century 


1 84  THE   CHINESE, 

later  the  government  of  China  repeated  the  procedure  by 
strangling  the  chief  men  among  the  Christians,  and  sub 
jecting  others  to  life-long  torment  with  the  cangue.  And 
all  this,  be  it  borne  in  mind,  was  not  the  irresponsible  action 
of  a  mob,  but  the  carrying  into  effect  of  a  governmental 
policy,  traditional  in  its  character  and  deliberately  put  in 
force.  If  every  Chinaman  in  the  United  States  were  wan 
tonly  shot  and  his  dwelling  burned  above  his  head  by  act 
of  Congress  or  executive  order,  precedent  after  prece 
dent  could  be  found  in  the  history  of  China,  and 
she  would  need  to  stand  mute  in  the  light  of  her  own 
record.  It  is  the  tenderness  born  of  the  Christianity  that 
China  has  spurned  that  restrains  the  exercise  of  measures 
which  she,  under  far  less  provocation,  has  time  and  again 
used  without  mercy. 

But  no  course  necessary  in  the  exclusion  and  expulsion 
of  the  Chinese  need  work  undue  hardship  to  them.  The 
first  requisite  is,  of  course,  the  prevention  of  any  addi 
tion  to  the  Chinese  population  already  here,  and  the 
prevention  of  the  return  of  any  who  leave  the  country. 
The  former  would  prevent  any  further  ingress,  the  lat 
ter — in  view  of  the  practice  of  the  Chinese  in  return 
ing  to  their  own  homes  after  having  acquired  property — 
would  tend  directly  to  diminish  their  number  here.  Both 
of  these  were  provided  for,  I  understand,  in  the  treaty  of 
the  present  year  entered  into  between  the  Chinese  envoy 
and  the  State  Department,  but  since  rejected.  The  exact 
provisions  of  this,  however,  appear  to  be  as  yet  inac 
cessible,  and  without  disrespect  to  our  officials  it  may  be 
safely  said  that  our  former  experience  in  diplomacy  with 
China  leaves  but  little  margin  for  expectation  than  any  treaty 
will  be  more  than  a  platitude.  If,  however,  the  provisions 
referred  to  had  been  accepted  in  due  form  there  would 
still  have  remained  the  need  of  legislation  to  carry  them 
into  effect  ;  and  beyond  this  the  task  of  executing  the  laws 
themselves.  There  is  but  little  doubt  that  China,  if  so  dis- 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  185 

posed,  could  do  much  toward  preventing  the  emigration  of 
her  subjects  by  the  simple  expedient  of  putting  an  end  to 
the  stimulating  methods  in  use.  But  there  would  still 
remain  the  fact  that  the  emigration  starts  from  the  port  of 
Hong-Kong,  which  is  under  British  and  not  at  all  under 
Chinese  control.  For  the  most  part  the  effective  means  of 
preventing  the  incoming  of  the  Chinese  must  consist  in 
vigilance  upon  our  own  borders,  not  only  at  the  ports  of 
entry,  but  especially  along  the  whole  Pacific  coast  and  the 
northern  and  southern  boundaries  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  At  the  present  time  the  only  obstacle  to  the 
immigration  of  the  Chinese  to  the  British  dominions  is  a 
head  tax  of  fifty  dollars,  and  strong  corporate  influences 
are  at  work  in  Canada  to  secure  the  repeal  of  this.  There  is 
now  practically  no  obstacle  to  the  passage  of  the  Chinese 
from  British  Columbia  into  our  adjoining  territory  and 
thence  to  all  portions  of  the  United  States.  Should  Chinese 
be  landed  upon  the  Pacific  coast  of  Mexico  they  would 
similarly  find  easy  ingress  to  the  country.  Once  mingled 
with  their  fellows  already  here  they  are  undistinguishable, 
and  the  same  increase  in  their  number  which  is  now  going  on 
will  continue  unchecked  to  the  extent  to  which  they  may  be 
able  to  evade  the  law  along  thousands  of  miles  of  frontier. 
For  this  reason  a  domestic  police  system  with  reference  to 
them  must  be  necessary  in  addition  to  any  measures  which 
may  be  taken  to  prevent  their  coming. 

The  record  of  every  Chinaman  at  home  is  kept  with  care 
by  duly  constituted  authorities.  The  course  of  his  wander 
ings  is  recorded  in  like  manner  through  agencies  peculiar 
to  his  race  and  nationality.  But  so  far  as  concerns  the 
enforcement  of  American  law  neither  of  these  are  available. 
The  individual  Chinaman,  once  in  the  country,  is  an  un 
known  element  of  the  alien  mass  to  which  he  belongs,  and 
whether  he  has  entered  legally  or  illegally  is  practically 
unascertainable.  With  the  strict  enforcement  of  anti- 
immigration  legislation  should  be  combined  an  equally 


1 86  THE   CHINESE, 

strict  registry  of  the  Chinese  in  the  localities  which  they 
inhabit  ;  and  absence  of  registration  should  insure  vigorous 
punishment,  followed  by  prompt  expulsion.  Nothing  less 
thorough  than  this  will  be  found  effective  to  practically 
secure  the  object  sought  by  restrictive  measures. 

Nor  is  there  any  objection,  practical  or  theoretical,  to  the 
propriety  and  utility  of  such  a  remedy.  Were  every  China 
man  in  the  country  compelled  to  register  himself,  his  resi 
dence,  his  occupation,  and  his  removal  from  place  to  place, 
the  detection  of  those  who  enter  the  country  illegally  would 
be  comparatively  easy.  In  such  case  each  Chinaman  would, 
of  course,  need  to  be  provided  with  a  certificate  guarded 
by  due  provision  against  transfer  from  one  to  another,  the 
possession  of  which  would  be  evidence  of  his  privilege  to 
remain  in  the  country.  The  absence  of  such  a  certificate 
would  in  like  manner  be  sufficient  reason  for  sending  him 
out  of  the  country.  There  is  nothing  impracticable  in  the 
carrying  out  of  such  a  system,  for  it  would  be  but  the  appli 
cation  to  the  Chinese  of  laws  that  are  enforced  in  the 
countries  of  Continental  Europe  with  reference  to  large 
portions  of  their  own  population.  It  would,  in  fact,  be 
merely  the  application  to  the  Chinese  in  this  country  of  the 
same  method  of  registration  and  identification  to  which,  as 
just  remarked,  they  are  subject  at  home.  No  necessity 
exists,  nor,  probably,  ever  can  exist,  for  the  application  of 
such  a  system  to  any  portion  of  our  own  people,  but  it  is 
an  absolute  necessity  that  something  of  the  kind  should  be 
applied  as  a  means  of  insuring  the  operation  of  laws  in 
tended  to  prevent  the  illicit  admission  of  Chinese  and  to 
diminish  their  number  among  us.  Were  this  method 
thoroughly  persisted  in  and  effectually  carried  into  effect 
a  rapid  diminution  of  the  Chinese  population  would  un 
doubtedly  result,  though  there  would  still  exist  the  need 
of  severer  measures  to  secure  their  final  expulsion. 

If  it  be  possible  upon  such  a  plan  to  secure  their  elimi 
nation,  it  will  have  the  quasi  merit  of  avoiding  even  the 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  187 

appearance  of  harshness,  and  of  preventing  individual  hard 
ship.  The  Chinaman  entering  the  country  in  defiance  of 
the  law  would  certainly  have  no  just  cause  of  complaint  if 
the  law  discovered  him,  punished  him,  and  sent  him 
away.  By  the  same  token  the  Chinaman  who  would  leave 
the  country  knowing  that  the  law  forbade  his  return,  could 
hardly  complain  if  the  law  held  to  its  word  and  kept  him  from 
coming  again.  Concerning  the  Chinaman  who  is  already 
here  and  prefers  to  remain,  even  his  ultimate  elimination 
should  be  regarded  as  a  result  to  be  sought  by  legislation, 
affording  reasonable  time  for  the  disposal  of  property 
and  settlement  of  business  affairs.  But  a  registry  and  sur 
veillance  of  our  Chinese  population,  as  strict  as  that  which 
France  and  Germany  exercises  with  regard  to  strangers,  as 
thorough  as  that  to  which  China  subjects  her  own  people,  is 
indispensable  to  the  discovery  of  those  who  evade  or  attempt 
to  evade  the  law.  Whatever  the  course  adopted,  the  time 
for  its  adoption  can  not  be  postponed  without  constantly 
accumulating  harm.  The  work  and  the  uses  of  state 
craft,  and  of  diplomacy,  are  to  prevent  the  aggrandizement 
of  evils  until  they  reach  the  stage  at  which  they  must  be 
either  removed  by  violent  means  or  be  submitted  to  as  un 
avoidable  and  irreparable  wrongs  :  it  is  not  in  our  race  or 
in  our  people  to  do  the  latter  :  it  is  for  the  statesmen,  the 
jurists,  and  diplomatists  of  the  present  to  see  to  it  that  the 
former  shall  not  be  required. 

I  have  thus  far  spoken  of  the  exclusion  of  the  Chinese 
with  the  prospect  in  view  that  the  Government  of  China 
may  prove  recalcitrant  to  a  proper  determination  on  the 
part  of  our  people  and  government  to  apply  to  her 
the  same  principle  of  exclusion  which  she,  for  so  many 
ages,  applied  to  foreigners  in  her  own  behalf.  A  rumor — 
it  is  scarcely  more,  though  made  the  subject  of  telegraphic 
transmission — that  China  is  to  recall,  within  the  next  three 
years,  her  people  from  Australia  with  an  intent  of  hostilities 
with  Great  Britain,  furnishes,  however,  a  hint  of  what 


1 88  THE   CHINESE, 

would  secure  an  even  more  speedy  and  effective  removal 
of  the  Chinese  from  our  territory.  That  the  ruler  of  China 
has  the  power  to  direct  the  return  of  every  Chinaman  to 
his  home  in  his  own  country  is  beyond  gainsaying.  That 
the  mass  of  the  Chinese  would  have  no  idea  of  disobe 
dience  is  undeniable.  And  that  recusants  could  be  severely 
dealt  with  through  the  manifold  ramifications  of  Chinese 
authority  exerted  through  the  Six  Companies  and  other 
agencies  is  almost  equally  indisputable.  If  such  return 
can  be  enforced  as  a  preliminary  to  war  with  a  European 
nation,  it  may  also  in  the  interests  of  peace,  and  as  an  ele 
ment  in  a  broader  and  juster  policy  between  our  own 
country  and  China.  It  should  be  offset  by  a  total  with 
drawal  on  our  part  from  the  aggressive  schemes  and  brutal 
diplomacy  of  Europeans  concerning  China,  and  by  the  ren 
dering  in  her  behalf  of  at  least  a  moral  support  in  her 
defense  of  her  own  territory,  her  ancient  usages  and  laws, 
her  peculiar  institutions,  and  her  policy  of  isolation  from 
the  social,  political,  industrial,  and  commercial  complica 
tions  of  other  countries.  Such  a  dream  of  peace  and  jus 
tice  appears  to  be,  and  probably  is,  Utopian  to  the  last 
degree,  but  its  realization  affords  the  sole  escape  from  the 
alternative  of  the  exclusion  and  expulsion,  more  or  less 
forcible,  of  the  Chinese,  or  the  subjugation  of  the  land  by 
their  gradually  increasing  hordes. 


XXXVIII. 

QUASI  SENTIMENTALITY    AND    INACCURATE     AVERMENTS   OF 
PRO-CHINESE  ADVOCACY. 

As  I  draw  toward  the  conclusion  of  this—^xamiftatioft  of 
our  relations  with  China,  it  may  be  proper  to  speak  some 
what  of  the  objections  made  to  the  repeal  of  the  Burling- 
ame  convention  and  its  adjuncts  by  the  advocates  of  the 
present  state  of  affairs.  Few  of  these  merit  sober  discus- 


AND    THE   CHINESE  QUESTION.  189 

sion  ;  and  many,  were  it  not  for  the  grave  import  of  the 
subject,  might  well  call  for  mirthful  derision.  For  example, 
it  is  urged  that  we  should  not  cancel  the  treaty  inasmuch 
as  it  was  forced  upon  China  ;  as  if  a  blunder  or  a  crime 
committed  must  be  persisted  in  while  the  evil  of  it 
broadens  and  deepens  until  remedy  becomes  impossible- 
We  are  told  that  Chinese  labor  "  in  our  fields  and  shops 
will  certainly  benefit  our  industry,"  despite  the  teaching  of 
nearly  forty  years  to  the  contrary.  We  are  informed,  in 
sentimental  phrase,  that  "  if  the  higher  civilization  and 
Christian  energy  of  the  American  people  of  California  can 
not  devise  means  to  remove  the  ignorance,  abate  the  pre 
judices,  and  enlighten  the  paganism  of  those  thus  brought 
to  their  doors,  it  is  weak  indeed."  The  sentimentalist, 
being  unmindful  of  the  historic  truth  that  the  higher  civili 
zation  which  necessitates  comfort  and  luxury  of  life,  inevi 
tably  goes  to  the  wall  when  brought  in  competition  with 
the  lower  civilization  which  asks  for  none  of  these  ;  and 
heedless  also  of  the  further  truth  that  the  real  object  of  our 
Christian  energy  should  be  to  retain  our  country  for  the 
Christian  civilization  of  our  own  and  kindred  peoples,  and 
not  to  convert  it  into  a  colossal  remedial  institution  for  the 
eradication  of  the  moral  deficiencies  of  a  race  so  utterly 
distinct  that  its  fusion  with  the  Caucasian  is  impossible. 

Proceeding  in  the  same  strain,  it  is  gravely  pleaded  that 
our  law  should  be  "formulated  in  Chinese  "  for  the  benefit 
of  the  immigrants,  "  and  that  direct  oversight  by  responsi 
ble  officers  [should  be]  maintained  over 'this  alien  popula 
tion,  which  it  is  the  duty  of  a  government  to  do  ;  "  which 
would  require  the  addition  to  our  government  of  a  special 
eleemosynary  department.  We  are  also  to  "  prevent  the 
extension  of  opium-smoking  among  them,"  but  are  not  in 
formed  how  this  very  desirable  object  is  to  be  achieved,  the 
penalty  of  death  having  been  insufficient  to  restrain  the 
Celestials  from  this  vice  in  their  own  country.  We  are  to 
"  learn  thoroughly  the  working  of  their  companies  and 


19°  THE   CHINESE, 

guilds,"  but  are  left  in  darkness  as  to  the  modus  operandi  of 
so  doing,  and  necessarily  so,  for  these  companies  and  guilds 
have  a  secrecy  as  deep  as  that  of  any  secret  societies  in  the 
world  :  these  associations  being  one  of  the  means  by  which 
Chinese  competition  with  the  white  races  is  advanced  and 
strengthened.  We  are  to  "  encourage  them  to  bring  their 
families,"  but  as  the  advocate  of  this  "encouragement1' 
sets  forth  in  another  part  of  his  statement  (I  am  quoting 
from  an  official  report)  that  "  Chinese  women  refuse  to  go 
anywhere,"  it  is  difficult  to  perceive  in  what  way  the  en 
couraging  process  could  bring  forth  any  tangible  result. 

It  is  also  said  that  we  are  to  "  inform  them  upon  what 
ever  will  help  them  to  become  better,"  and  this  is  proposed 
to  be  accomplished  by  "educating  a  number  of  Americans 
in  the  Chinese  language  for  official  interpreters  and  trans 
lators  ;  "  in  other  words,  through  the  agency  of  a  legion  of 
pensionaries  of  the  government.  I  would  not  have  referred 
to  this  spur  of  the  subject  in  so  long  a  paragraph  were  it 
not  that  the  sentences  quoted  are  fair  illustrations  of  what 
passes  for  reasoning  in  the  pro-Chinese  mind.  They  are 
taken  word  for  word  from  the  public  document,  Foreign 
Relations  of  the  United  States,  for  the  year  1876.  Their 
author  was  a  member  of  the  United  States  Legation  at 
Pekin.  It  may  perhaps  be  worth  while  to  quote  still  further 
from  the  document  from  which  these  extracts  are  taken.  It 
ascribes  the  inflow  of  Chinese  in  California  to  "  the  Provi 
dence  of  God,"  forgetful  that  it  had  its  beginning,  as  we 
have  had  occasion  to  note,  in  brutal  aggressions  of  which 
we  were  quick  to  take  advantage  and  in  which  to  no  small 
extent  we  shared,  upon  a  power  that  had  never  harmed  us, 
and  that  it  has  reached  its  present  proportions  because  we 
have  recklessly  left  open  the  gateways  of  our  own  land 
while  wantonly  reaching  forth  to  spoil  the  possessions  of 
another. 

One  further  comment  on  this  encomiast  of  Chinese  inva 
sion.  He  asserts  that  the  repeal  of  the  treaty  "  would  have 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  191 

little  or  no  effect  upon  the  emigration,"  and  that  "  the  im 
perial  government  can  no  more  control  the  movements  of 
its  subjects  or  keep  them  within  its  territory  than  the  Pres 
ident  can  restrain  those  of  our  citizens."  This  is  on  page 
67  of  the  volume  referred  to,  and  is  dated  Pekin,  June  30, 
1876.  On  page  48,  under  date  of  March  21  of  the  same 
year,  another  official,  the  American  Minister,  writing  from 
Hong-Kong  concerning  the  treaty  concluded  six  weeks 
earlier  between  China  and  Peru,  states  that  "  the  great 
object  of  Peru  in  procuring  a  treaty  was  to  promote  Chinese 
immigration  ;  this  had  been  virtually  stopped  by  the  action 
taken  at  Macao,  here  in  Hong-Kong,  and  by  the  Chinese 
authorities."  It  is,  moreover,  a  matter  of  the  commonest 
historic  notoriety  that  for  ages  the  emperor  had,  and  exer 
cised,  the  power  of  preventing  emigration,  wherever  the 
traditional  policy  of  the  country  seemed  to  require  it,  and 
that  power  still  continues  within  the  territory  of  China. 
The  assertion  that  the  despotic  ruler  of  China,  whose  will 
is  law  throughout  his  vast  dominions,  has  no  greater  power 
than  the  president  of  a  constitutional  republic,  calls  for  no 
remark. 

Of  no  greater  weight  as  reasons,  but  from  their  origin 
and  occasion  requiring  more  serious  consideration,  are  the 
allegations  of  the  Executive  who  vetoed  the  bill  passed  by 
Congress  in  February,  1879.  These  compose  the  stock 
arguments  of  pro-Chinese  advocates,  and  may  therefore 
be  properly  considered  here. 

The  bill,  as  presented  to  the  Executive,  forbade  the 
transport  of  more  than  fifteen  Chinese  on  any  one  vessel 
entering  the  ports  of  the  UnitedfStates,  and  it  also  directly 
repealed  articles  V.  and  VI.  of  the  Burlingame  Treaty.  This 
repeal  was  designed  to  take  effect  through  the  action  en 
joined  on  the  Executive.  Omitting  reference  to  the  plati 
tudes  which  have  no  practical  bearing  upon  the  question,  it  is 
sufficient  to  consider  that  the  veto  turned  upon  an  implied 
denial  of  the  right  of  Congress  to  act  in  the  premises. 


192  7'ffE   CHINESE. 

The  words  of  the  veto  on  this  head  are  as  follows:  "  The 
authority  of  Congress  to  terminate  a  treaty  with  a  foreign 
power  by  expressing  the  will  of  the  nation  to  no  longer  ad 
here  to  it  is  as  free  from  controversy  under  our  constitu 
tion  as  is  the  further  proposition  that  the  power  of  making 
new  treaties,  or  modifying  existing  treaties,  is  not  allotted 
by  the  constitution  in  Congress,  but  in  the  President  by  and 
with  the  advice  of  the  Senate,  as  shown  by  the  concurrence 
of  two-thirds  of  that  body."  The  meaning  of  this  is  hardly 
clear  ;  it  first  admits  the  authority  of  Congress  "  to  termi 
nate  a  treaty  with  a  foreign  power,"  and  then  sets  forth,  if  it 
has  any  meaning  at  all,  that  Congress  can  not  terminate 
two  articles  of  that  treaty.  In  other  words,  the  somewhat 
anomalous  idea  is  advanced  that  while  Congress  can  abro 
gate  an  entire  treaty,  it  can  not  abrogate  a  part  of  it.  I 
venture  to  say  that  there  is  nowhere  in  the  jurisprudence  of 
the  civilized  world  a  single  decision  of  any  court  or  a  single 
opinion  of  any  recognized  publicist  by  which  this  proposi 
tion  can  be  claimed  to  be  endorsed.  Its  fallacy  is  shown 
by  the  decisions  of  our  own  courts,  hereinbefore  previously 
referred  to,  for  in  regard  to  the  treaty  with  Russia  the  right 
of  Congress  to  annul  the  provision  relating  to  the  duties  on 
Russian  products  was  fully  and  absolutely  sustained.  The 
then  President  in  his  veto  appears  to  have  been  quite  un 
familiar  with  these  decisions.  He  refers  to  the  act  of  Con 
gress  in  1798  concerning  the  French  treaty  in  a  manner  that 
clearly  indicates  this  to  be  the  only  case  bearing  upon  the 
subject  to  which  his  attention  had  been  called  ;  and  even 
as  concerns  this,  exception  may  be  justly  taken  to  the  inter- 
pretation  which  he  has  placed  upon  it. 

This  veto,  however,  indicated  a  meaning  deeper  than  is 
borne  upon  its  face,  and  one  that  has  been  accentuated  by 
the  tenor  and  tendencies  of  the  judicial  decisions  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  to  which  I  have  hereinbefore  referred.  It  is 
that  the  action  of  the  popular  branch  of  the  government  may 
be  ignored  even  in  municipal  affairs  by  the  treaty-making 


AND    THE    CHINESE   QUESTION.  193 

power  ;  and  that  in  certain  contingencies  affecting  the  inter 
nal  administration  of  the  country,  the  President  may  defy 
both  houses  of  Congress  together.  Nothing  more  subversive 
of  the  structure  of  our  government  or  the  genius  of  our  in 
stitutions  can  be  conceived.  Under  cover  of  a  treaty  once 
concluded  the  Executive  could  block  the  way  to  change, 
however  necessary,  provided  only  that  the  requisite  action 
should  be  the  repeal  of  some,  but  not  all,  of  the  articles.  A 
new  treaty  can  not  be  concluded  without  the  consent  of  the 
President,  and  if  a  part  of  a  treaty  can  only  be  repealed  by 
such  new  treaty  it  would  follow  that  Congress  and  the 
people  would  be  powerless  under  the  will  of  an  obstinate 
master,  and  the  authority  of  Congress  as  a  coordinate 
branch  of  the  government  would  in  such  cases  be  utterly 
destroyed.  It  is  not  necessary  to  argue  that  in  this  coun 
try  it  has  never  been  intended  that  such  power  should  be 
asserted  or  wielded  by  the  Executive. 

There  is  another,  though  by  comparison  a  minor  error,  in 
that  veto  ;  an  error  so  palpable  that  it  may  well  have  been 
an  effort  to  mislead  rather  than  a  statement  made  in  sincere 
belief.  It  carries  the  idea  throughout,  although  not  in 
express  terms,  that  the  passage  of  the  bill  would  have 
operated  to  destroy  all  our  treaty  relations  with  China. 
But  such  would  not  have  been  the  legal  result.  Our  three 
treaties  with  China,  that  of  1844,  that  of  1858,  and  that  of 
1868,  were  separate  treaties,  although  successive  in  their 
ratification,  and  the  later  comfirmatory  of  those  preced 
ing.  It  is  almost  a  truism  in  public  law  that  where  two 
or  more  treaties  exist  between  nations  the  abrogation 
of  one  does  not  necessarily  involve  that  of  the  other,  al 
though  it  may  be  made  the  pretext  of  formally  renouncing 
the  other.  In  the  words  of  Vattel,  "  when  there  exists 
between  allies  two  or  more  treaties  different  from  and 
independent  of  each  other,  the  violation  of  one  of  those 
treaties  does  not  directly  disengage  the  injured  party  from 
the  obligation  she  has  contracted  in  "the  others  ;  for  the 


194  THE   CHINESE, 

promises  contained  in  these  do  not  include  those  con 
tained  in  the  violated  treaty."  Even  from  the  standpoint 
of  Mr.  Hayes,  who  wholly  ignored  the  fact  that  China  has 
abrogated  the  Burlingame  treaty  by  neglect  or  refusal  to 
carry  out  one  of  its  essential  provisions,  the  formal  annihi 
lation  of  that  treaty  would  not  necessarily  work  the  forfeiture 
of  the  two  preceding.  To  state  the  principle  more  briefly  ; 
while  the  infraction  of  one  article  of  a  specific  treaty  is 
held  under  the  code  of  nations  to  release  the  opposite  party 
from  all  the  provisions  of  that  particular  treaty,  the  abro 
gation  of  one  treaty  does  not  render  other  and  distinct 
treaties  void,  but  at  the  most  they  are  only  made  voidable. 

In  view  of  the  utter  fallacy  of  the  pro-Chinese  advocacy, 
it  may  be  asked  with  a  semblance  of  reason,  why  has  our 
government  touched  the  subject  so  delicately  ?  and  why  has 
its  action,  when  it  has  been  forced  to  action,  been  so  adverse 
to  the  bitter  cry  from  the  Pacific  Coast?  The  query  admits 
of  a  double  answer.  It  may  be  assumed,  without  violation 
of  probabilities,  that  the  same  agencies  which  have  so  sed 
ulously  cultivated  a  deceived  and  deceptive  public  opinion 
at  the  East  in  favor  of  the  Chinese,  have  worked  with  no 
less  effort  and  success  to  secure  influence  at  the  centres  of 
legislative  and  administrative  control. 

There  is,  however,  another  explanation,  which,  at  first  view 
may  seem  less  worthy  of  credence,  but  which  shows  strong 
claims  to  belief  in  the  relative  attitudes  of  the  United 
States  and  China,  and  the  official  utterances  which,  unless 
they  be  taken  as  meaningless,  cannot  be  held  devoid  of 
timorous  expression  on  the  one  hand  and  sinister  intent  on 
the  other.  The  veto  of  the  Executive,  before  adverted 
to,  speaks  vaguely  of  dangers  that  might  accrue  from  re 
scinding  the  treaty.  The  American  Minister  to  China,  in 
writing  of  the  possibility  of  its  repeal  asks,  "  Would  it  not, 
indeed,  imperil  all  our  relations  with  the  Empire  ?  "  Not 
all  of  official  reports  or  international  communications  are 
published  in  the  "  Diplomatic  Correspondence  "  or  "  Foreign 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  19$ 

Relations."  The  State  Department  retains  in  its  secret 
archives  whatever  either  a  far-sighted  or  a  time-serving 
policy  may  seem  to  require  :  what  actual  utterances  of  the 
Chinese  Government  may  have  been  communicated  to  our 
own,  or  to  what  stress  they  may  have  subjected  our  foreign 
policy,  can  not  at  this  time  be  fully  learned.  But  even  with 
that  which  is  open  to  the  public,  the  strong,  clear  postu 
lates  and  decisive  demands  of  the  Chinese  Central  Authority 
are  manifest.  Said  Feng  Taoti,  twelve  years  ago,  to 
Bradford,  American  Consul-general  at  Shanghai  :  "  Steam 
ers,  guns,  and  small-arms,  the  products  of  the  west,  the 
Chinese  can  make  for  themselves."  Two  months  later 
Prince  Kung,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  hardly  veiled  a 
threat  under  the  forms  of  diplomatic  courtesy  in  address 
ing  the  American  envoy  concerning  an  alleged  assault 
upon  some  Chinese  coolies  landing  at  San  Francisco.  He 
characterized  in  invidious  terms  a  portion  of  the  population 
of  California  and  "  their  purpose  of  interfering  with  Chi 
nese  immigration,"  and  requested  "  the  suppression  of  such 
acts,  in  order  to  the  maintenance  of  friendship  between 
the  two  nations."  The  full  meaning  of  these  words  is  only 
apparent  when  we  reflect  upon  the  studied  avoidance  of 
exaggerated  language  which  forms  the  first  lesson  in  the 
training  of  the  diplomat,  and  in  which  the  Chinese  are  no 
less  adepts  than  are  the  statesmen  of  other  nations.  Nor 
can  we  find  the  menace  without  meaning  when  we  recall 
again  that  China  is  stronger  on  the  Pacific  Coast  in  men 
capable  of  bearing  arms  than  ourselves,  and  that  she  can 
transport  ten  warriors  from  the  middle  of  the  kingdom 
to  San  Francisco  at  less  expense  than  the  United  States 
can  convey  a  single  soldier  and  his  knapsack  from  Chicago 
to  the  Coast  ;  that  she  can  send  vessels  with  stronger  armor 
and  heavier  guns  to  breach  the  walls  of  Alcatraz  than  we 
could  provide  for  defense,  and  could  send  them  in  shorter 
time.  Fear  then,  and  its  corollary,  a  futile  expediency,  not 
less  than  pressure  from  the  classes  that  profit  from  Chinese 


J9  THE   CHINESE, 

cheap  labor,  may  lie  at  the  basis  of  our  temporizing  policy 
with  China  ;  a  policy  that  drags  and  dawdles  and  sentimen 
talizes  ;  that  sends  vain  embassies  abroad  to  talk,  while  at 
home  it  operates  to  destroy  the  control  of  our  own  people 
over  our  own  country,  our  own  institutions,  and  the  direc 
tion  of  our  own  future. 


XXXIX. 

ONE  COURSE,  AND  ONE  ONLY,  CAN  STAY  THE  EASTWARD 
MIGRATION  OF  THE  YELLOW  RACE,  AND  ITS  GRADUAL 
CONQUEST  OF  THE  LAND. 

WHATEVER  the  causes  of  this  policy,  it  has  lasted  far  too 
long.  The  conflict  is  upon  us.  It  can  not  be  evaded  or 
repressed.  Each  year  of  delay  renders  its  labor  more 
arduous  and  its  dangers  more  great.  It  has  been  approach 
ing  through  unconscious  ages,  for  it  is  the  latest  result  of 
the  advance  in  opposite  directions  of  two  great  peoples, 
because  of  a  destiny  forced  upon  them  by  the  configuration 
of  the  earth.  The  fruitful  alluvial  of  China  lay  within 
boundaries  that  isolated  her  from  the  rest  of  the  world  ; 
and  here,  separate  from  other  races,  her  people  increased 
and  flourished  and  grew  strong.  Meanwhile  the  hardy 
populations  of  Northern  Asia  outgrew  the  food  supply  of 
their  comparatively  sterile  regions,  and  precipitated  them 
selves  with  futile  valor  upon  the  laborious,  patient,  brave 
and  enduring  denizens  of  the  Central  Kingdom.  Driven 
back  from  the  fertile  plains  at  the  southward,  hindered  by 
the  sea  to  the  east,  repulsed  at  the  north  by  the  bar 
renness  of  Arctic  solitudes,  their  only  outlet  lay  westward 
over  the  comparatively  low-lying  regions  where  were 
traced  the  pathways  of  the  caravans  that  carried  to  the 
countries  of  the  Caspian  the  slender  traffic  of  the  remotest 
East.  Displacing  Goth  and  Alan  and  Vandal,  they  urged 
these  onward  to  new  migrations  which,  in  their  turn,  im 
pelled  the  German  toward  the  Atlantic.  This,  the  sec- 


AND    THE   CHINESE   QUESTION.  197 

ondary  result  of  Chinese  power,  gave  a  westward  movement 
to  strong  and  hardy  peoples  whose  successive  invasions 
changed  the  face  of  civilization  from  the  borders  of  Persia 
to  the  shores  of  Spain.  The  first  waves  of  conquest  were 
displaced  by  those  that  succeeded  or  were  dissipated  by 
fusion  with  the  native  populations,  but  through  all  the 
advance  was  toward  the  west  ;  in  the  nature  of  things  there 
was  no  receding.  And  so  in  the  vicissitudes  of  ages  our 
progenitors  framed  the  new  structure  of  Europe,  and  de 
veloping  from  the  rudest  to  the  highest  form  of  society, 
created  the  nations  from  which  our  own  people  directly 
sprang. 

But  the  progress  did  not  end  with  this.  The  conditions 
under  which  the  Caucasian  developed  in  Europe,  after  the 
fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  were  parallel  with  none  of  those 
known  to  anterior  peoples.  They  favored  a  growth  of  civic 
liberty,  of  earnest  intellectual  effort,  and  deep  and  intense 
emotional  feeling,  from  which  grew  the  complex  relations 
and  delicate  adjustments  of  government,  of  law,  of  relig 
ion,  of  science,  of  arts  and  industries,  which  have  elevated 
man  to  a  higher  semblance  of  the  image  of  his  Creator  than 
was  possible  under  the  grosser  forms  of  antecedent  civiliza 
tions.  Yet  throughout  all  this  lingered  the  tendency  to 
reach  still  further  toward  the  west.  And  after  the  ventur 
ous  ships  of  Icelandic  voyagers  had  crossed  the  sea,  and 
the  records  of  Iceland  had  told  the  tale  to  the  Genoese, 
the  way  of  the  Caucasian  was  opened  to  the  continent 
beyond.  Then,  not  yet  four  centuries  ago,  our  immediate 
ancestors,  the  descendants  of  the  westward-moving  hosts, 
came  and  possessed  the  land  and  left  it,  an  inheritance,  to 
us,  their  children. 

And  we,  from  the  hamlets  scattered  along  our  Eastern 
coasts,  have  followed  the  instinct  inherited  through  cen 
turies  and  have  pressed  westward  still,  ardent,  earnest, 
toiling,  and  victorious,  until  beyond  prairie  and  buffalo 
plain,  beyond  alkaline  desert  and  Nevadan  forest,  we  have 


igB  THE   CHINESE. 

planted  our  civilization  and  builded  our  cities  upon  the 
edge  of  the  utmost  ocean  whose  farther  waves  wash  the 
shores  of  that  China  whose  prowess  gave  its  first  impulse 
to  the  westward  journey  of  our  race.  That  journey  is 
ended.  We  have  completed  our  share  of  the  circuit  of  the 
globe.  And  on  our  latest  territory  we  are  met  by  those 
same  Chinese,  driven  toward  the  east,  their  only  outlet,  as 
we  for  ages  have  been  toward  the  west.  The  two  races 
have  met,  and  one  or  the  other  must  give  way.  The 
Chinese  must  recoil  to  his  own  land,  or  we  must  recede 
from  ours.  The  two  races,  distinct  as  if  drawn  from  differ 
ent  planets,  compelled  by  geographical  conditions  to 
advance  in  opposite  directions  around  the  world  are 
brought  face  to  face.  They  will  not  mingle,  they  can  not 
fuse.  The  Pacific  Coast  at  an  early  day,  and  our  entire 
country  at  a  remoter  time,  must  be  the  inheritance  of  the 
Caucasian  or  it  must  be  the  heritage  of  the  Chinese. 

Blind  and  futile  indeed  is  the  policy  that  wavers  when 
confronted  with  such  an  alternative.  The  question  before 
us  is  a  question  of  the  migration  of  races  ;  of  the  trans 
planting  of  nations.  It  can  not  be  met  too  soon  or  too 
decisively,  for  every  succeeding  year  of  neglect  renders  the 
issue  more  doubtful.  To  express  the  truth  in  language 
plain  and  terse,  if  our  Christian  civilization,  if  our  enlight 
enment,  if  our  free  forms  of  government,  if  our  prosperity 
and  power  as  a  people,  are  to  be  preserved  and  perpetuated 
for  ourselves  and  our  children,  then  the  Chinese  must  be 
expelled  from  our  borders  at  any  hazard,  and  at  any  cost. 


FINIS. 


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